Physical and Mathematical Modelling of Steelmaking and Casting Processes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In the 21st century the Canadian metals industry is facing major challenges and the iron and steel industry is no exception. All steelmakers are aiming for energy efficient and environmentally friendly operations and at the same time improving and optimizing the steelmaking and casting processes to meet the stringent product quality demands at reduced cost. Having all these constraints in mind, Canadian steelmakers have heavily invested in R&D and one of the major areas of research has been physical and mathematical modelling of steelmaking and casting processes. For all these processes, the evolution in our methods and abilities to model reacting single phase and multiphase flows, and associated transport phenomena has contributed significantly to effectively design, build and operate these processes. However, most of the previous research dealt with thermodynamics and transport phenomena separately, and researchers focussing on thermodynamics, would rarely work on transport phenomena and vice versa. In this proposed research program, thermodynamics and transport phenomena will be coupled together to develop realistic mathematical models which is a novel idea and the metallurgists' dream. In addition, the present research program intends to combine mathematical modelling research with physical modelling, high temperature laboratory experiments, and plant trials for better understanding of the fundamentals behind different iron and steelmaking processes. Key topics of interest include dephosphorization in oxygen steelmaking, desulfurization in the ladle, killing of steel in the ladle, dust and metals emissions from metallurgical vessels, liquid metal quality and flow control in continuous casting. The current research program aims to achieve three major goals:*****1)Develop robust multiphase flow models for steel making and continuous casting operations using computational fluid dynamics. Major areas of interest are the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF), Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), Ladle, Tundish and Mould.****2)Integrate the developed multiphase flow CFD models with thermodynamics.***3)Experimentally validate all the mathematical models using water models, high temperature laboratory experiments and plant trials.*****The ultimate vision of this proposed research programme is to develop original knowledge in the field of ferrous metallurgy, which in turn will benefit the Canadian steel makers. Finally, all the knowledge and HQP training generated from this project can be transferred and applied to other metallurgical disciplines like non ferrous, light metals, etc. and technology cross pollination will happen between various metallurgical industries in Canada.********** **