Burden Distribution in Shaft Furnace for Direct Reduction of Iron Ores

Abstract

Experiment was conducted with a 45°segment full-scale model to investigate the burden distribution in direct reduction shaft furnaces equipped with the charging pipe. The findings are as follows :
1) The charged material moves from the charging pipe first in a pushing flow like a landslide and then in a rolling flow toward the wall.
2) Size segregation occurs in the rolling flow through a percolation process, while less segregation in the pushing flow.
3) The size distribution can be expressed as relative distance of charged material movement irrespective of throat diameter.
4) High content of fine particle in lump ore layer remarkably increases the gas permeability resistance around the charging pipe.