Design of bed structure aiming the control of void structure formed in the Sinter cake

Design of bed structure is a promising approach to maintain/increase the productivity of sinter under the condition of increasing use of iron ores having high combined water content. In this paper, a new process image, MEBIOS, is illustrated and further "in situ" observation of the change in the void structure of the sintering bed by using X-ray CTS and a numerical simulation have been conducted in order to preliminary evaluate the possibility of this proposal. X-ray CTS observation suggests that the existence of pellets of 15 mm in size does not significantly affect the formation of macroscopic void network in the sintering bed and not lead to inhomogeneous sintering. A series of the laboratory-scale of sinter pot experiment was also carried out to obtain parameters for the simulation. The gas flow near the pellet surface and the differences in the temperature profiles among the pellet center and surface were simulated by using the numerical model although further studies are necessary, e.g., on the considering ways of structural changes of void in the sintering bed, reduction and oxidation reactions and a mesh generation method properly representing the contraction of bed height.