Modeling of Heat Transfer in LDConverter (BOF) Lining

Abstract: During the production of steel in the LD converter the refractory lining is exposed to high temperature emulsion of steel, slag and gas. It protects the steel body of the vessel to come in contact with the molten steel.The main purpose of this work was to observe the temperature distribution profile in converter refractory lining which is very important to understand the life of the refractory lining of the LD converter.In this study, a three dimensional (3D) heat transfer model for the refractory lining of converter was developed. The lining of the refractory material was considered as magnesite brick for inner lining, dolomite for intermediate lining and steel shell as outer part. In order to do the numerical modeling, the CFD software Ansys Fluent 13.0 was used. After considering the proper dimensions, meshing, properties of the lining material and boundary conditions, the modeling in Ansys was performed in two stages. In the first stage, the modeling was performed by assuming that the converter is already heated and the inside temperature of the furnace is 1923K and the outside temperature of the steel body is 300K. In the second stage, the temperature change of the molten steel, slag and the gas was considered as function of blowing time and slag height based on theories from different references. Firstly, the three dimensional (3D) heat transfer model was used for the refractory lining of the converter to show transient heat flow through the lining at different times. Secondly, 3D modeling results from fluent 13.0 was used to develop temperature distribution profile through the lining at different height for different time steps and at different positions with time and also along the converter height from the bottom to top. It has been noticed that refractories in the lining in contact with steel and slag must be of good quality for the reduction of wear cost and downtime and therefore the reduction of refractory cost per ton of steel production.