Hot Technologies

Typically, blast furnaces run continuously for 10 to 15 years, until interior erosion forces rebuilding. Until now, it has been nearly impossible to accurately assess their inner health.

Recently, however, two Purdue University-Calumet professors have been using 21st Century Research and Technology Fund grants to develop high-tech systems for monitoring furnace conditions, fine-tuning molten iron production, and extending furnace life. Since the total cost of shutting down and relining a blast furnace can exceed $100 million, this is good news indeed for Indiana’s steel mills, which employ 26,000 people around the state.

Dr. Chenn Zhou, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue, has developed advanced computational fluid-dynamics modeling software that can provide visualizations of the flow field inside blast furnaces and thus predict erosion patterns in the furnaces. Dr. Zhou is the first to pursue this technology in the United States. Her computer models are already providing realworld answers for Indiana’s steel industry, and commercial licensing is an anticipated next step. This software can also be applied to other flow systems for process optimization to increase energy efficiency, reduce pollutant emissions, enhance productivity and save costs.

Complementary research in application of difference acoustical methods to directly measure the erosion process is being conducted by Dr. Yulian Kin, Purdue Professor of Mechanical Engineering. The combination of direct acoustical measurement and computational modeling should lead to advances in furnace design and operation, helping boost the productivity of a major Indiana industry. These technologies can also be used in other furnace-based industries, such as glass production, and Dr. Kin’s acoustical research may find additional commercial applications in areas as diverse as assessment of damage and prediction of remaining life in aging structures, for fundamental material research, medical diagnosis and quality control in manufacturing.