The Optimization Of Blast Furnace Shell Thickness Under Thermal–Structural Coupling

The shell of blast furnace is steel, working in high temperature and high pressureenvironment. It is an important part of blast furnace structure that ensures safeproduction. With the development of blast furnace structure becoming large-scale andmodernize, and the smelting technology increasing, the design of blast furnace shellbecome more strict. However, many metallurgical design institute still stick to theoriginal empirical formula during the design, including technical specifications of iron-making process furnace structure shell, lack of theory values. In addition to relying onthe accumulation of experiences in engineering practice, numerical analysis is also animportant auxiliary method during design at present, only using both methods designcould become more scientific.The finite element method combined with the shell theory and optimization theory inthis paper, using finite element analysis software ANSYS, and follow regulatoryrequirements to establish a finite element model of blast furnace shell, Setting thethickness is variable to establish parametric model. According to load value provided bythe process, exerts the gas pressure, charge pressure, temperature effect etc. We obtainthe mechanics and deformation maps of blast furnace in the temperature field, gravityfield, as well as thermal-structural coupled field. The deformation by temperature needrelease in thermal-structural coupled field, The bottom should consider temperatureeffect, the pressure of gas and iron is the greatest in the combination of stress intensity,other load contribution is roughly equal. We should give full consideration for iron depth in the design. Contrast to the specification original design thickness isunreasonable. Using ANSYS optimization module, we can to get a reasonable thicknessof blast furnace by the way of segment optimization. the amount of steel is less25.2%than the usual thickness, less4.5%than the specifications. The thickness of optimizedfurnace postures and upper is smaller than specification’s, the middle is roughly equal,the hearth section’s is large. It is caused by the depth of death iron increasing after theblast furnace large, this is coincide with the current blast furnace destruction occurred inthe situation of the hearth section, the above Illustrates the need for numerical analysisin the blast furnace design and reliability of research method. The optimal value can beused as an important reference to determine the thickness of blast furnace shell; theanalysis method can be applied to similar special structural design.