Process Simulation and Control Optimization of a Blast Furnace Using Classical Thermodynamics Combined to a Direct Search Algorithm

Several numerical approaches have been proposed in the literature to simulate the behavior of modern blast furnaces: finite volume methods, data-mining models, heat and mass balance models, and classical thermodynamic simulations. Despite this, there is actually no efficient method for evaluating quickly optimal operating parameters of a blast furnace as a function of the iron ore composition, which takes into account all potential chemical reactions that could occur in the system. In the current study, we propose a global simulation strategy of a blast furnace, the 5-unit process simulation. It is based on classical thermodynamic calculations coupled to a direct search algorithm to optimize process parameters. These parameters include the minimum required metallurgical coke consumption as well as the optimal blast chemical composition and the total charge that simultaneously satisfy the overall heat and mass balances of the system. Moreover, a Gibbs free energy function for metallurgical coke is parameterized in the current study and used to fine-tune the simulation of the blast furnace. Optimal operating conditions and predicted output stream properties calculated by the proposed thermodynamic simulation strategy are compared with reference data found in the literature and have proven the validity and high precision of this simulation

Effect of temperature and magnetic fields on the structural state of the Fe-Zr-B amorphous alloy below crystallization temperature

Amorphous materials give the possibility to observe the phase and structural transformations in sufficiently narrow temperature intervals with the retention of their unchanged chemical composition. The present report is concerned with the results of the study of structure evolution and its dependence on magnetic field upon heating in the Fe-Zr-B amorphous alloy by the method of the photometric analysis of structural images (PHASI). The PHASI method makes it possible to establish the effect of external temperature and magnetic fields on the brightness spectra of the reflection from the surface of the object under study and the distribution of the zones, in which these changes are localized. The established temperature dependence of the energy characteristics of the reflection brightness spectrum in arbitrary units indicates the complex structural transformations caused by heating of the alloy under study. Also it is shown that the magnetic field produces residual structural changes in the alloy in comparison with its initial stat