Mass distribution in the failing stream of burden materials

The mass fraction distributed in the falling stream for three burden materials, iron ore, coke and sinter, was investigated. The experiments were conducted using actual bell less top charging equipment of the furnace in a trial rig. The rig was comprised of the complete material charging system including receiving hopper, common hopper, upper seal valve, lower seal valve, flow control gate and rotation chute. A brick-walled cylindrical tank of 5m diameter and 1.5m height was built for simulating the furnace throat. A semi-cylindrical pipe was inserted along the throat diameter at 1.6m below the chute tip. Rotating chute disturbed the material along the peripheral direction and completed full rings. The continuous line and the broken line represent the best-fit mass fractions obtained using normal distribution and Okuno's model for chute angles of 30° and 39°. It was concluded that the spread of the falling stream is not same for coke, ore, and sinter, but are comparable.