CFD simulation of bath dynamics in the HIsmelt smelt reduction vessel for iron production

Abstract

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has played a crucial role in enabling the design and scale–up of the HIsmelt ® direct iron smelting technology. An existing PHOENICS–based CFD model of the molten bath dynamics in the process vessel has been transferred to ANSYS–CFX to improve its accuracy and to enable efficient analysis on an unstructured mesh. The basic model involves Lagrangian particle tracking of iron ore and coal particles through two Eulerian phases representing metal and slag. The model incorporates reactions involving coal devolatilisation, coal dissolution, and ore reduction. The study shows increase in number of particles used improves convergence.