The effect of particle properties on binary mixture segregation during blast furnace charging

Abstract

Segregation is likely to occur during blast furnace charging since the iron ore mixture contains particles differing simultaneously in size, shape and density. However, predicting how the mixture components will be distributed is particularly difficult due to the combined effect of these differences. Although the Discrete Element Method has been used extensively to gain understanding of segregation during blast furnace charging, most research has focused on simple mixtures in which particles differ only in size. In this work, we investigate how size, shape and density differences simultaneously affect mixture segregation in radial and vertical directions of a charged layer using the response surface methodology. We found that size and density difference between the mixture components significantly affect both radial and vertical segregation while shape differences, especially the aspect ratio, are relatively less important.