Computational modelling and simulation of heat transfer during steel billet reheating and transport with growth of oxide scale

Abstract

The steel industry is one of the most energy intensive sectors and is therefore very vital newlinefor both national and international interests. The reheat furnaces are used in the steel newlineindustries for heating of steel billets before rolling processes. During reheating at high newlinetemperature, steel billet surfaces react with furnace gases, which are termed as oxidation newlinereaction. The formation and growth of oxide scale affect the heat transfer characteristics newlineto a great extent. Billets after heating in the reheat furnace are transported to the rolling newlinemills, during this period temperature field in the billet changes considerably from reheat newlinefurnace discharge conditions. newlineKnowledge of transient temperature field in the billets is important for numerous newlinereasons like energy efficiency, process optimization, roll force calculation, carbon newlinesegregation control, microstructure control, etc. However, it is almost difficult to obtain newlinecorrect and complete transient temperature field in the billet through measuring newlineinstrument. Developing an analytical solution to the problem is also very difficult due to newlinethe complexities associated with the changing boundary conditions and large number of newlineparameters affecting the process. In the recent past, more focus has been on improved newlinefurnace control and better temperature field predictions which are relying on numerical newlinemodelling. A suitable numerical model may offer a valuable tool for predictions of the newlinetemperature field with the growth of oxide scale. newlineLiterature review suggests a need for numerical modelling and simulation newlineconsidering the growth of oxide scale for predictions of 3D temperature field in the billet. newlineHence, this thesis work aims to address the need through development, validation and newlinesimulation of heat transfer numerical model for steel billet reheat and transport. The newlineobjective is not only to develop a numerical model for predictions of 3D temperature field newlinein the billet with of growth of oxide scale, but also to keep model computationally efficient newlinewith reasonable accuracy,