Neutrophil-Mediated Lung Injury Both via TLR2-Dependent Production of IL-1α and IL-12 p40, and TLR2-Independent CARDS Toxin after Mycoplasma pneumoniae Infection in Mice

Although Mp-induced pneumonia is usually a self-limiting disease, refractory life-threatening pneumonia is often induced. In addition, the development of alternative therapeutic strategies for Mp is expected because of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant Mp.

Numerical Analysis on Erosion and Optimization of a Blast Furnace Main Trough

The main trough of a blast furnace (BF) is a main passage for hot metal and molten slag transportation from the taphole to the torpedo and the slag handling. Its appropriate working status and controlled erosion ensure a safe, stable, high-efficiency and low-cost continuous production of hot metal. In this work, the tapping process of a main trough of a BF in the east of China was numerically studied with the help of a CFD library written in C++, called OpenFOAM, based on the use of the Finite Volume Method (FVM). The results show that turbulence intensity downstream of the hot metal impact position becomes weaker and the turbulence area becomes larger in the main trough. During the tapping, thermal stress of wall refractory reaches the maximum value of 1.7 × 107 Pa at the 4 m position in the main trough. Furthermore, baffles in the main trough placed between 5.8 m and 6.2 m were found to control and reduce the impact of the turbulence on the refractory life. The metal flowrate upstream of the baffles can be decreased by 6%, and the flow velocity on the upper sidewall and bottom wall decrease by 9% and 7%, respectively, compared with the base model. By using baffles, the minimum fatigue life of the refractory in the main trough increases by 15 tappings compared with the base model, so the period between the maintenance stops can be prolonged by about 2 days.

A Mathematical Model for Control and Optimization of Industrial Rotary Alumina Kiln Process

Temperature is a crucial factor for clinker quality in the Industrial Rotary Alumina Kiln Process(IRAKP). However, the characteristic of the high temperature, complex kinetics, multivariable, non-linearreaction kinetics, long-time delayed reaction and various raw materials make it difficult to accurately controlthe temperature in IRAKP through an existing control technology. This paper proposes a dual-responsesurface-based process control (DRSPC) system for the IRAKP in a novel manner. In the DRSPC, instead ofthe more precise and complicated nonlinear equations, the dual response surface models are fitted to describethe reaction kinetics in the IRAKP and track their standard deviations for stable operation purpose. Because asimultaneous consideration of multiple control targets could address the problem of unstable operation inkilns; the objectives of the DRSPC study are designed as optimizing product quality, minimizing energyconsumption and temperature fluctuations. Therefore, the proposed DRSPC goals are to achieve a uniformquality clinker, a high fuel efficiency, and a long refractory life. A weight optimization approach is used tohandle these multiple objective functions. The proposed DRSPC can estimate the working conditions of a kilnand predict some optimal manipulated variables to the control system in each control time interval forimproving the efficiency of IRAKP. The DRSPC is applied to a real IRAKP for demonstrating itsapplicability and advantages.

Management of Lime in Steel

The EU28 total lime demand in 2017 was estimated at about 20 million tons, out of which about 40% are consumed in the iron and steel industry. Steel remains the major consumer after environment and construction. The lime industry is quite mature and consolidated in developed countries, with enough reserves and production to serve regional markets while being fragmented in developing nations where steel producers rely on local sourcing. There is relatively very little trade for lime worldwide. Lime has a critical role at different steps of the steelmaking process, and especially to make a good slag facilitating the removal of sulphur and phosphorus, and for providing a safer platform to withstand high intensity arc plasma in the electric arc furnace (EAF), and violent reactions in the basic oxygen furnace (BOF). Lime quality and quantity has a direct effect on slag quality, which affects metallurgical results, refractory life, liquid metal yield, and productivity, and therefore the total cost of the steel production. In this paper, we present the importance of careful selection in the limestone and calcination process, which influences critical lime quality characteristics. We shall further elaborate on the impact of lime characteristics in the optimization of the steelmaking process, metallurgical benefits, overall cost impact, potential savings, and environmental benefits.

Investigation and prevention of the residues formed in melting furnaces and transfer ladles used in low-pressure Al-casting technologies

Purpose: Refractory life, in Al-casting processes such as alloy wheel production, is obviously affected by the inclusions formed in the transfer ladles and holding/melting furnaces in which melting, fluxing and degassing operations are carried out. The short refractory life affects, adversely, the economical aspect of the process. Therefore, a study on the physical and chemical properties of the above mentioned inclusions has been started. The main purpose of the study is to understand the relationships among the metallurgical processes taking place during casting, properties of the refractories used and the formation of inclusions.Design/methodology/approach: During this industry-university joint study, experimental studies using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and optical microscopy were used to investigate the nature and properties of the inclusions. Also, corrosion behaviour of six different refractories was investigated by exposing them to molten aluminium.