Physical and Mathematical Modelling of Steelmaking and Casting Processes

进入21世纪，加拿大金属工业面临重大挑战，钢铁工业也不例外。所有钢铁企业都致力于节能环保运营，同时改进和优化炼钢和铸造工艺，以降低成本满足严格的产品质量要求。考虑到所有这些限制，加拿大钢铁制造商在研发方面投入了大量资金，其中一个主要研究领域是炼钢和铸造过程的物理和数学建模。对于所有这些过程，我们在模拟反应的单相和多相流以及相关输运现象方面的方法和能力的发展，对有效地设计、构建和操作这些过程做出了重大贡献。然而，以往的研究大多是将热力学和输运现象分开处理，专注于热力学的研究人员很少研究输运现象，反之亦然。本研究计划将热力学和输运现象结合起来，建立切合实际的数学模型，这是一个新颖的想法，也是冶金学家的梦想。此外，目前的研究计划打算将数学建模研究与物理建模、高温实验室实验和工厂试验相结合，以更好地了解不同炼铁和炼钢过程背后的基本原理。主要关注的主题包括氧气炼钢中的脱磷、钢包中的脱硫、钢包中的钢水杀灭、冶金容器中的粉尘和金属排放、液态金属质量和连铸中的流动控制。目前的研究计划旨在实现三个主要目标：

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.