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Pulverized Coal Injection (PCI)/ Natural Gas (NG) co-injection has a significant impact on the size and shape of the raceway inside a Blast Furnace. Consequently, this affects the gas distributions, as well as iron ore reduction, and the furnace pressure drop. The raceway size and shape are influenced by incoming gas momentum entering the raceway envelope from the tuyere jet, the combustion of coke and injected fuels, coke particle size, fuel injection rates, slag volume, and other complex factors. A 3-D CFD mathematical model has been established for estimating the raceway geometry and combustion inside the blast furnace. This model considers the effects of coke combustion and injection fuels on the raceway geometry and the raceway gas flow patterns. The combustion effects are treated as additional source terms of mass and momentum in the gas phase because the combustion converts solid fuels into the gaseous phase and releases heat. In this paper, the raceway geometry and raceway combustion models are presented, along with the methodologies for raceway simulation, and some selected model applications (including parametric study analyses of blast furnace operation under a variety of fuel injection conditions).

Ironmaking, Blast Furnace, Raceway, PCI, CFD, Numerical Modeling