Convective and conductive heat transfer in the blast furnace cohesive zone: Effect of softening and melting

The gas flow and heat transfer behavior around a single blast furnace cohesive layer was investigated with the use of a two-dimensional, unsteady state, axisymmetrical model. The model was validated using data from a low temperature experimental apparatus simulating a section of cohesive zone layers. During validation of the mathematical model it was found that the key parameters which showed the most sensitivity consisted of the degree of ore softening or shrinkage, the variation of the gas-solid heat transfer coefficient from a gas-particle system to a gas-slab system and the latent heat of fusion. The inclusion of the latter had the most dramatic effect on the temperature distribution across the system since a temperature arrest took place just below or at the melting temperature of the softening-melting material.