Numerical simulation analysis of Guixi copper flash smelting furnace

A numerical simulation analysis for reactions of chalcopyrite and pyriteparticles coupled with momentum, heat and mass transfer between the particle and gas in a flashsmelting furnace is presented. In the simulation, the equations governing the gas flow are solvednumerically by Eular method. The particle phase is introduced into the gas flow by theparti-cle-source-in-cell technique (PSIC). Predictions including the fluid flow field, temperaturefield, concentration field of gas phase and the tracks of particles have been obtained by thenumerical simulation. The visualized results show that the reaction of sulfide particles is almostcompleted in the upper zone of the shaft within 1.5 m far from the central jet distributor (CJD)type concentrate burner. The simulation results are in good agreement with data obtained from aseries of experiments and tests in the plant and the error is less than 2%.

Grey correlation analysis of factors influencing maldistribution in feeding device of copper flash smelting

An experimental model of maldistribution was established and grey correlation analysis method was employed to describe quantitatively the maldistribution phenomenon in the feeding device of copper flash smelting.Particle motion in the feeding device was separated into uniform flow in chute and restricted slanting parabolic motion in distributor channel.Factors affecting particle velocity at the chute outlet and particle moving distance in the distributor channel,which also cause the maldistribution,were analyzed based on the assumption of pseudo fluid.Experiments were conducted to study the maldistribution using river sand.The results indicate obvious mass maldistribution and an even higher degree with the increase of feeding mass rate;meanwhile,size maldistribution is negligible.Also,feeding intensity has a larger impact on circumferential maldistribution than on radial maldistribution.Based on the experimental results of the eight factors impacting the maldistribution,grey relation of each factor was calculated using grey correlation analysis.The importances of these factors were sequenced.The results show that a proper adjustment of the structure will ameliorate the maldistribution phenomenon in the feeding device of copper flash smelting.

Simulation of moving boundary of the reaction shaft in a flash smelting furnace

As to solve the online monitoring of the inner temperatur e and freezing profile of the reaction shaft of flash smelting furnace, simulation of the wall in the reaction shaft in a flash smelting furnace was made through numerical computation. The computational results are very near the data got in s ite. The error of the moving boundary is approximately 3%, and that of the tempe rature is less than 5%. It is proved that the simulation software is applicable for practice to monitor the temperature and moving boundary inside the hearth on line. Based on a large number of the data computed, the relation between the cha nge of the moving boundary and inner temperature is summarized, and the great in fluence of the cooling system on the forming and stability of the moving boundar y inside the hearth is emphasized, which provide the theoretical bases for optim izing the flash smelting operation.

Influence of operation parameters on flash smelting furnace based on CFD

The influence of three important operation parameters in Jinlong flashsmelting furnace, including the distributing blast speed, the oxygen enrichment rate of process airand the ratio of central oxygen to overall oxygen (O_c/O_o), has been investigated using a virtualsimulation system on copper flash smelting furnace. The core of this virtual simulation system is anumerical simulation of CFD (computational fluid dynamics), and this system incorporates couplingmomentum transport, heat transport, mass transport, reaction kinetics between gas and particles andchemical reactions between gas and gas. A set of numerical predicted data were obtained. The CFDsimulation shows that there is a sensitive zone of the distributing blast speed, and the dustcontent ascends when the speed exceeds 180 m centre dot s^(-1). Increasing the oxygen concentrationof processing air benefits the efficient production of the flash smelting furnace.

Numerical modeling of Jinlong CJD burner copper flash smelting furnace

Fluid flow, heat transfer and combustion in Jinlong CJD concentrate burnerflash smelting furnace have been investigated by numerical modeling and flow visualization. Themodeling is based on the Eulerian approach for the gas flow equations and the Lagrangian approachfor the particles. Interaction between the gas phase and particle phase, such as frictional forces,heat and mass transfer, are included by the addition of sources and sinks. The modeling resultsincluding the fluid flow field, temperature field, concentration field of gas phase and thetrajectories of particles have been obtained. The predicted results are in good agreement with thedata obtained from a series of experiments and tests in the Jinlong Copper Smelter and thetemperature error is less than 20 K.

Modeling and Optimization of Copper Flash Smelting Process Based on Neural Network

The copper flash smelting process neural network model(CFSPNNM)was developed,its input layer includes eight nodes:oxygen grade(OG),oxygen volume per ton of concentrate(OVPTC),flux rate(FR)and quantifies of Cu,S,Fe,SiO_2 and MgO in copper concentrate;output layer includes three nodes:matte grade,matte temperature and Fe/SiO_2 in slag,and net structure was 8-13-10-3.Then,the internal relationship between the technological parameters and the objective parameters was built after the CFSPNNM was trained by us...

Moisture effect on the combustion of a single copper concentrate particle in a flash smelting furnace

A mathematical model has been presented to study the combustion of a single copper concentrate particle with high moisture content. By using the presented model, the effect of particle moisture content on particle temperature, sulfur oxidation, and combustion heat generation has been evaluated. The mineralogical composition of the commonly used concentrate at Khatoonabad flash smelting furnace has been used in this study. It was found that the particle moisture content is removed in the sub-second time range and thus the moisture has marginal impact on the variation of particle temperature and on the reaction rate when the gas temperature is assumed to be constant in the reaction shaft. When a concentrate with high moisture content is charged, the particle size enlargement due to the agglomeration of concentrate particles causes an abrupt fall in the particle reaction rate.

Furnace structure analysis for copper flash continuous smelting based on numerical simulation

According to the innate characteristic of four types of furnace, the copper flash continuous smelting （CFCS） furnace can be considered a synthetic reactor of two relatively independent processes： flash matte smelting process （FMSP） and copper continuous converting process （CCCP）. Then, the CFCS thermodynamic model was proposed by establishing the multi-phase equilibrium model of FMSP and the local-equilibrium model of CCCP, respectively, and by combining them through the smelting intermediates. Subsequently, the influences of the furnace structures were investigated using the model on the formation of blister copper, the Fe3O4 behavior, the copper loss in slag and the copper recovery rate. The results show that the type D furnace, with double flues and a slag partition wall, is an ideal CFCS reactor compared with the other three types furnaces. For CFCS, it is effective to design a partition wall in the furnace to make FMSP and CCCP perform in two relatively independent zones, respectively, and to make smelting gas and converting gas discharge from respective flues.

Numerical simulation of flow characteristics in settler of flash furnace

A computational fluid dynamics （CFD） simulation was carried out with CFX4,3 to investigate the melt flow and temperature distributions in the settler of a flash furnace. Sixteen cases of one slag tap hole adopted with one matte tap hole （1-to-l） and one slag tap hole adopted with two matte tap holes （1-to-2） operation modes were modelled. The simulation results show that the melt flows are similar in both two operation modes, but evident circulations can be found in the case of the 1-to-2 operation mode. The combination modes of the slag and matte tap holes are found to have a significant effect on the temperature distributions of the melt. The melt temperature is more uniform in the case of the 1-to-2 mode. Selection of a matte tap hole farther away from the inlet is more conducive to achieve a uniform distribution of the melt temperature in the settler in nractical tannine oneration

Mathematical modelling and numerical optimization of particle heating process in copper flash furnace

A mathematical model of the particle heating process in the reaction shaft of flash smelting furnace was established and the calculation was performed.The results indicate that radiation plays a significant role in the heat transfer process within the first 0.6 m in the upper part of the reaction shaft,whilst the convection is dominant in the area below 0.6 m for the particle heating.In order to accelerate the particle ignition,it is necessary to enhance the convection,thus to speed up the particle heating.A high-speed preheated oxygen jet technology was then suggested to replace the nature gas combustion in the flash furnace,aiming to create a lateral disturbance in the gaseous phase around the particles,so as to achieve a slip velocity between the two phases and a high convective heat transfer coefficient.Numerical simulation was carried out for the cases with the high-speed oxygen jet and the normal nature gas burners.The results show that with the high-speed jet technology,particles are heated up more rapidly and ignited much earlier,especially within the area of the radial range of R=0.3−0.6 m.As a result,a more efficient smelting process can be achieved under the same operational condition.

Online monitoring and assessment of energy efficiency for copper smelting process

The copper flash smelting process is characterized by its involvement of wide energy sources and high energy consumption, so the energy conservation is usually a highly concerned topic for the flash smelting enterprises. However, due to the complexity of the system, it is quite difficult to perform a timely comprehensive analysis of the energy consumption of the whole production system. Aiming to realize an online assessment of the energy consumption of the system, great effort was first made in Jinguan Copper, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co. Ltd. Methods were proposed to solve technical difficulties such as the acquisition and processing of data with different sampling frequencies, the online evaluation of the electricity consumption, and timely evaluation of product output in the periodic process. As a result, a software system was developed to make the online analysis of the energy consumption and efficiency from the three levels ranging from the system to the equipment. The analytical results at the system level was introduce. It’s found that electricity is the most consumed energy in the system, accounting for 77.3% of the total energy consumption. The smelting unit has the highest energy consumption, accounting for 52.8% of the total energy consumed in the whole enterprise.