Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Research paper
h i g h l i g h t s
3D-CFD of carbon combustion and electrode radiation were performed for an EAF.
Particles surface and gas phase reactions used to predict coal particle combustion.
Realistic temperature distribution obtained for slag surface.
Temperature, CO and CO2 distribution of carbon combustion visually obtained.
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 2 March 2015
Accepted 23 July 2015
Available online 4 August 2015
This paper, concentrates on a three-dimensional (3D) computational uid-dynamics (CFD) model for coal
combustion and electrode radiation inside an electric-arc furnace (EAF). Simulation of the melting
process includes combustion reactions of coal particles and radiation from electrodes. Particle surface
and gas phase reactions were used to predict injected coal particle combustion. The predicted temperature distributions are realistic because of the inclusion of combustion reactions and radiation models
together. The CFD model provided detail information for the coal particles combustion and radiation
interactions phoneme inside the electric-arc furnace. The cooling process of the EAF walls were
considered in the CFD model hence heat losses from the walls have been found higher than the earlier
studies. Results showed that CFD simulation can efciently be used to develop and investigate EAF in
design phase.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Electric arc furnace
CFD
Combustion
Radiation
Heat transfer
1. Introduction
Today, energy is an expensive and valuable resource for the
heavy industry operations. Approaching to the maximum efciency
is one of the critical targets for the industrial sustainability.
Generally electric arc furnaces consume high levels of energy to run
the steelmaking processes that uses the coal and the electricity as
the main resources of the energy. In order to increase the efciency
of these types of huge processes expensive experimental investigations using trial-error methods are required. Recently
developed computational resources can solve interpenetrating
physical phenomenon such as the solid particles combustion and
the evaporation as well as the turbulence and the radiation
together. CFD is an advanced simulation tool with a capability to
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: gcoskun@sakarya.edu.tr (G. Coskun).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.07.066
1359-4311/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
832
Table 1
EAF parameters.
Internal height (mm)
Internal furnace radius (mm)
Internal slag surface radius (mm)
Electrode radius (mm)
Coal injector diameter (mm)
Oxygen injector diameter inner e outer (mm)
Injector angle e Three
Oxygen ow rate (kg/s/injector)
Coal ow rate (kg/s/injector)
3505.25
3600
3080
305
25.4
68.14e45.4
45 downwards
1.2955
0.333
2. CFD model
2.1. Geometry
The EAF parameters which are given in Table 1 were used to
create the 3-D model for the CFD simulation. Boundary conditions
and angles on x, y coordinate of injectors were given particularly in
Fig. 1. Injector 1, 2 and 3 were positioned on X axis
25 , 25 , 102 respectively. All injectors located 1.07 m above
from the slag surface and aiming 45 downwards. Coal particles and
O2 were sent into the furnace through the injectors as shown in
bottom-right of Fig. 1. One of the main purposes of the model is to
obtain upper surface temperature distribution of the melt layer. In
order to simplify the model, bottom surface of the computational
domain was accepted as a slag surface instead of modeling the
overall melt volume. Computational domain borders also include
inner surfaces of the furnace walls, upper and side walls of the
chimney. Combustion products and the other unburned gasses
leave the computational domain from the exhaust surface of the
EAF. Bottom surfaces of three electrodes generate electric arc and
the radiate energy with the constant heat ux.
Exhaus
Electrodes
Furnace
Wall
Injector 1
Injector 2
Upper
Bath
Injector 3
Oxygen
Lower Bath
Slag surface
Fig. 1. 3-D model of the EAF.
Carbon
833
Fig. 2. EAF mesh structure (left). Dense mesh structures for injector area (right-up) and boundary layer approach above the slag surface (right-down).
Table 2
Average results from slag surface of different grid densities.
Number of mesh Radiation
Static
elements
temperature (K) temperature
(K)
564,657
733,962
1,129,940
0.14124
0.119
0.1186
2045
2045
2048
1880
1882
1884
0.00026661
0.0002215
0.000216
834
Table 3
Gas phase reactions.
Number
Reaction
Ea (j/kgmol)
1
2
3
2.119e11
1e15
2.027e08
1e08
Table 4
Char oxidation model of the coal particles.
4
5
6
0.002 7.9e07
C < s > 0; 5O2 /CO
C < s > CO2 /2CO
C < s > H2 O/H2 CO
5e-12
835
Fig. 3. Velocity (m/s) magnitude for a plane intersecting the injector 1; (a) Velocity distribution prole and (b) Velocity data graph.
Fig. 4. Temperature (K) prole for a plane intersecting the injector 1, 2 and 3.
Fig. 5. Radiation temperature (K) prole for a plane intersecting one of the electrodes.
836
Fig. 6. Static temperature (K) and PDF distribution prole on the slag surface.
4. Conclusion
Fig. 8. Coal gas, coal particles, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen at the
center of the injector 1 jet.
837
Fig. 9. CO (left) and CO2 (right) mass fraction in combustion eld on a plane intersection the injector 1.
Acknowledgements
1.2
Model
1
This work was supported by the CVS Technologies at GebzeKocaeli, TURKEY. We would like to thank the CVS for their support.
0.8
0.6
References
0.4
[1] ANSYS, Inc, FLUENT, Version 14.0, ANSYS, Inc, Canonsburg, PA, 2013.
[2] Y. Li, R. Fruehan, Computational uid dynamics simulation of post combustion
in the electric arc furnace, Metallurgical Mater. Trans. 34 (3) (2003) 333e343.
[3] D. Guo, G. Irons, Modeling of radiation intensity an EAF, in: Third International
Conference on CFD in the Minerals and Process Industries, Melbourne,
Australia, 2003, pp. 10e12.
nsson, Modeling of a DC electric arc
[4] J. Alexis, M. Ramirez, G. Trapaga, P. Jo
furnace - heat transfer from the arc, ISIJ Int. 40 (2000) 1089e1097.
[5] M. Rahman, Fundamental Investigation of Slag/Carbon Interactions in Electric
Arc Furnace Steelmaking Process (PhD Thesis), The University of New South
Wales, 2010.
[6] M. Grant, Principles and strategy of EAF post combustion, in: Electric Furnace
Conference, Orlando, USA, 2000, pp. 12e15.
[7] J. Zhang, W. Prationo, L. Zhang, Z. Zhang, Computational uid dynamics
modeling on the air-ring and oxy-fuel combustion of dried victorian brown
coal, Energy Fuels 27 (2013) 4258e4269.
jek, Validation of an effervescent spray model with secondary
[8] J. Broukal, J. Ha
atomization and its application to modeling of A large-scale furnace, Appl.
Therm. Eng. 31 (2011) 2153e2164.
[9] R.I. Singh, A. Brink, M. Hupa, CFD modeling to study uidized bed combustion
and gasication, Appl. Therm. Eng. 52 (2) (2013) 585e614.
[10] B. Rahmanian, M.R. Safaei, S.N. Kazi, G. Ahmadi, H.F. Oztop, K. Vafai, Investigation of pollutant reduction by simulation of turbulent non-premixed pulverized coal combustion, Appl. Therm. Eng. 73 (1) (2014) 1222e1235.
[11] A.C. Benim, B. Epple, B. Krohmer, Modelling df pulverised coal combustion by
a eulerian-eulerian two-phase ow formulation, Prog. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 5
(6) (2005) 345e361.
[12] E. Scheepers, Y. Yang, A.T. Adema, R. Boom, M.A. Reuter, Process modeling and
optimization of a submerged arc furnace for phosphorus production, Metallurgical Mater. Trans. B 41 (B) (2010) 990e1005.
[13] B. Magnussen, B. Hjertager, On the structure of turbulence and A generalised
eddy dissipation concept for chemical reaction in turbulent ow, in: AIAA
Aerospace Meeting, St. Louis, USA, 1981, pp. 12e15.
[14] D.L. Marchisio, A.A. Barresi, Understanding coal gasication and combustion
modeling in general purpose CFD code, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 58 (2003)
3579e3587.
[15] M.M. Baum, P.J. Street, Predicting the combustion behavior of coal particles,
Combust. Sci. Technol. 3 (5) (1971) 231e243.
[16] L. Hookyung, S. Choi, B.J. Kim, Coal gasication and combustion modeling in
general purpose CFD code, J. Korean Soc. Combust. 15 (3) (2010) 15e24.
[17] J. Zhang, M. Zhang, J. Yu, Extended application of the moving ame front
model for combustion of a carbon particle with a nite-rate homogenous
reaction, Energy Fuels 24 (2010) 871e879.
[18] E. Gomez, D. Rani, C. Cheeseman, D. Deegan, M. Wise, A. Boccaccini, Thermal
plasma technology for the treatment of wastes: a critical review, J. Hazard.
Mater. 161 (2e3) (2009) 614e626.
[19] I. Istadia, Y. Bindarb, Improved cooler design of electric arc furnace refractory
in mining Industry using thermal analysis modeling and simulation, Appl.
Therm. Eng. 73 (1) (2014) 1129e1140.
0.2
0
0
Data Point
Fig. 10. Proportional gas temperature differences for each data point. Comparison of
the current simulation and Zahng et al. [7].
In this study, the thermal effects of the coal combustion and the
electrode based arc radiation are modeled for a commercial EAF
using the state of art simulation technique of CFD. Core temperature occurred with the combustion in the jet and the temperature
distribution on the slag surface has been analyzed in detail. The
variation of the CO and CO2 which are occurred by the combustion
reactions and diffusion from the slag surface are given numerically
and graphically. The effect of the radiation on the temperature
distribution inside the EAF and on the slag surface is examined. The
total and the average temperature distribution on the slag surface is
around 1770 K. It is important to keep scrap metal at the uid phase
for the better quality. The average temperature at the slag surface is
1880 K while the minimum temperature is 1770 K. This temperature distribution meets the requirements.
The developed model can help us to increase the thermal efciency of an EAF by testing at the design level. It was determined
that the model is fast, reliable, low cost and able to give detailed
results. This model gives us an economic alternative against the
costly experimental studies and also gives realistic and detailed
results against the zero dimensional calculations which have the
less consistency.
It is seen that the major heat transfer mechanism is the radiation
predictably. As a result of the study the heat transferred to the
metal slag surface is very poor in comparison with the heat
transferred to the EAF walls and the roof. The radiation heat loss
from the EAF's wall and the roof is considerable.