The Nodal Wear Model (NWM) as an Alternative to Understand the Mechanisms of Flow and Wear in the Blast Furnace Crucible

The presence of thermocouples in the lining of crucibles has become a general practice in the new construction of blast furnaces. The Nodal Wear Model (NWM) has also emerged as an instrument that, while using experimental data, obtains nodal variables whose experimental measurement is not possible: global coefficient of pig-iron/refractory heat transfer h pig−iron/lining g−i and nodal temperature Ti . Starting from these nodal properties, the wear of the lining or the growth of scabs may be controlled, independently of the mechanisms responsible for them. In the same way, the properties and influence zone of the dead man in the hearth of the blast furnace may be calculated, along with those regions where the fluid is allowed to move without any other restrictions than the ones of the corresponding viscous flow (raceway hearth region).