Experimental Cold Flow Water Model of a Blast Furnace Hearth: Part I

An experimental investigation of the cold flow water model of the blast furnace hearth has been performed to examine the influence of dead man porosity and taphole height on the flow patterns in the hearth. The model is 1/10th-scale of Ispat blast furnace No. 7. This model satisfied both the geometrical and Froude number similarities of the prototype. Experimental simulations were performed for dead man structure with porosity of zero and 0.3, and for various taphole heights. Results show that there is a considerable influence of the porosity of the dead man structure and the taphole height on the flow contours within the coke free zone of the hearth. Furthermore, experimental evidence shows that the maximum fluid velocity occurred in the vicinity of the taphole, which is possibly the region of high refractory wear in the prototype. This information is useful to design engineers in the redesign and reline of a blast furnace to reduce refractory erosion and increase campaign life. A comparison between experimentally and CFD predicted flow patterns shows good agreement qualitatively without agreeing quantitatively. In the absence of measured flow data for blast furnace hearth, an experimental model is needed to validate either numerically or analytically predicted flow patterns.