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Wards the Development of a Cu- Pola Furnace Process Model a Case Study on the Cupola Furnace Operations of Volvo Group Trucks Operations in Skövde, Sweden

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Wards the Development of a Cu- Pola Furnace Process Model a Case Study on the Cupola Furnace Operations of Volvo Group Trucks Operations in Skövde, Sweden Extensive investigations to- wards the development of a cu- pola furnace process model A case study on the cupola furnace operations of Volvo Group Trucks Operations in Skövde, Sweden Zahra Hassan June 2012 Master thesis School of Industrial Engineering and Management Department of Material Science and Engineering Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm 1 Master of Science Thesis MMK 2012:x MKN yyy Extensive investigations towards the development of a cupola furnace process model Zahra Hassan Approved Examiner Supervisor 2012-06-18 Pär Jönsson Rutger Gyllenram Patrik Ternstedt Commissioner Contact person Kobolde and Partners AB Joel Gustavsson Abstract The objective of this master thesis is to evaluate the cupola furnace operations of Volvo Group Trucks Operations in Skövde, Sweden. This evaluation is done by developing two accurate mass and heat balance process models for the cupola. The data used for the development of the mass and heat balances were provided by Volvo AB. The first process model assumes that the oxygen present in the off-gas analysis is from top air leakage. The second process model assumes that the oxygen present in the off-gas analysis is from the oxygen injected through the tuyeres as blast air. In both process models, it has been calculated that the silicon and manganese losses of Volvo AB’s cupola are 32 and 20 percent of the elements in the charge respectively. This thesis also includes exploring the possibility of increasing sulfur pickup of the cupola hot metal by controlling the flux and slag. For the purpose of this investigation, a case study is set up to examine the effect that decreasing limestone additions has on the properties of the slag. It is found that a decrease of the amount of limestone added in the charged materials will result in a significant decrease in the 2 sulfide capacity of the slag as well as the distribution of sulfur between the slag and the hot metal. However, the viscosity of the slag also increases noticeably. Other interesting methods of increasing the sulfur pickup of the hot metal without decreasing the viscosity of the slag are also suggested in this thesis. The final part of this work is a further development of Rawmatmix® software. The objective of this part of the thesis is to compare enthalpies of different cupola slag compositions using Rawmatmix® and Thermocalc® in order to improve slag enthalpies and specific heat (Cp) values of Rawmatmix® software. The difference between the Thermocalc® and Rawmatmix® enthalpy data is expressed as a difference in temperature. The standard deviation of the error between Rawmatmix® enthalpy model and Thermocalc® decreased from 64K to 32K. Finally, slag-metal equilibrium calculation is also carried out for Volvo AB’s cupola furnace using Thermocalc®. 3 This thesis is dedicated to my loving parents for teaching me the importance of education 4 Acknowledgements Writing this master thesis would not have been possible without the support of several people. First and foremost, I am particularly grateful to Patrik Ternstedt at Kobolde and Partners, for his pa- tience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense help. His guidance helped me throughout my master the- sis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my master thesis. It is also with immense gratitude that I acknowledge the support and help of my supervisors Dr Rutger Gyllenram and Dr Joel Gustavsson at Kobolde and Partners AB whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. Moreover, I owe my deepest gratitude to Mari Larsson at Volvo Group Trucks Operations for her kind assistance in providing me with all the data from the foundry in Skövde. Furthermore, I would like to thank Olle Westerberg for the opportunity to write this thesis at Kobolde and Partners AB. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Christer Davidsson at Volvo Group Trucks Operations for the opportunity to work on Volvo AB’s cupola process at the foundry in Skövde, Sweden. Many thanks to Dr Lidong Teng and Professor Du Sichen from The Royal Institute of Technology for helping me obtain and analyze data from ThermoSlag® software. I am also grateful to the rest of the staff at Kobolde for their warm hospitality. Finally, I would also like to thank my family for their love and support. I am especially grateful to my husband, Ahmed, for his continuous support and encouragement. 5 Table of Contents Chapter 1 – Introduction and Overview .................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Background ..................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Problem description ........................................................................................................................ 8 1.3 Method and Disposition .................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2- LITERATURE SURVEY: Foundry Cast Iron and cupola furnace ........................................ 11 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Cast Irons ....................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Principles of the metallurgy of cast irons ............................................................................... 13 2.2.2 Types of cast irons .................................................................................................................. 17 2.3 Conventional cupola furnace operation ........................................................................................ 20 2.3.1 Construction ........................................................................................................................... 21 2.3.2 Reaction zones ....................................................................................................................... 22 2.3.3 Acidic and basic cupolas ........................................................................................................ 25 2.4 Factors affecting cupola performance ........................................................................................... 26 2.4.1 Optimum blast rate ................................................................................................................. 26 2.4.2 Optimum charge mixture selection ........................................................................................ 27 2.4.3 Trade off between coke efficiency and oxidation losses ........................................................ 28 2.5 Cupola fluxes and slags................................................................................................................. 29 2.5.1 Usual fluxes............................................................................................................................ 30 2.5.2 Sources of slag ....................................................................................................................... 30 2.5.3 Acid slag composition ............................................................................................................ 31 Chapter 3- Modeling of cupola furnace: Mass and heat balance of Volvo AB’s cupola furnace in Skövde ..................................................................................................................................................... 33 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 33 3.2 Mass balance ................................................................................................................................. 34 3.1.2 Mass balance calculations ...................................................................................................... 35 3.2 Standard deviation of the output hot metal ................................................................................... 39 3.3 Heat balance calculations .............................................................................................................. 40 3.4 Disscussion and conclusion .......................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 4 – Sulfur pickup of cupola hot metal: Slag viscosity and sulfide capacity analysis using optical basicity model and Thermoslag® software .................................................................................. 45 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 45 4.2 Thermoslag® model ...................................................................................................................... 46 4.3 Optical basicity model .................................................................................................................. 47 6 4.4 Case study ..................................................................................................................................... 48 4.5 Discussion and conclusion ............................................................................................................ 51 Chapter 5- Slag enthalpies of Thermocalc® and Rawmatmix®:
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