CFD-DEM investigation of thermo-chemical behaviours in blast furnace

Blast furnace (BF) ironmaking remains the workhorse of massive production of pig iron. The mechanical and thermochemical behaviours of particulate raw materials charged to a BF, play an important role in determining the operation efficiency and costs. This thesis firstly studied the multiple raceway formation and mixing behaviours of those particulate raw materials by using the so-called Discrete Element Method. Then a thermochemical model of BF was established and tested at both particle and process scale. The results show that this thermochemical model is promising for optimizing BF operation.