3D model study of coal/coke combustion in a blast furnace effects of coal properties

A three-dimensional mathematical model of the combustion of pulverized coal and coke has been developed.The model is applied to the blowpipe-tuyere-raceway-coke bed region in an ironmaking blast furnace in one computational domain,which includes two parts:pulverized coal combustion model in the blowpipe-tuyere-raceway cavity and the coal/coke combustion model in the surrounding coke bed.The effects of coal properties are examined comprehensively,in terms of coal burnout and gas species distributions.The results indicate that using a coal of fine particle size or high VM content could improve burnout and would affect the gas composition considerably.The burnout is examined in two ways:compared with burnout along tuyere axis,burnout over the raceway surface is a more sensitive and sensible parameter to describe the amount of unburnt char entering the coke bed.The model is useful for examining the flow-thermo-chemical characteristics of the pulverized coal injection (PCI) process under various conditions in a blast furnace.