VDEh-BFI Accelerates Steel and Iron Sintering with Simulation

Yalcin Kaymak, VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut (BFI), Germany

VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut (BFI) is one of Europe’s leading research institutions in the development of iron- and steelmaking technology. As steel production entails a lengthy chain of processes, improvements in quality and efficiency are often the focus of their research. A significant step in the production line is sintering, where high temperatures are used to bake a powdered mix of iron ore and fuel until it fuses together. To accelerate the process, permeability bars can be added to the reactor bed to improve air supply to the fuel, speeding up combustion. Using the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, BFI was able to determine an optimal configuration of permeability bars that can increase the sinter speed by up to 40%.