Study of raceway in COREX melter gasifier by using three progressive methods

Abstract

Definition of raceway shape and size has always been a challenging task. In this study, based on physical simulation of the COREX melter gasifier, the pictures near the raceway zone are recorded by a high speed camera and the particles velocity contours are analyzed. Then three progressive methods are developed to describe the raceway size under different blowing rates. In the first method, the raceway depth and height are determined qualitatively through judging the particles velocity contours; In the second method, the fractal dimensions of different particles velocity contours are obtained by using fractal theory, then the two-dimension raceway depth and height are defined through analyzing the fractal dimensions; In the third method, the surface area of three-dimension ellipsoidal raceway is obtained by using the law of additive codimensions and the fractal dimensions which are from the second method. Due to the same data is used by the three methods, different raceway sizes are obtained, but the general trend is similar and the raceway size from all methods increase with the increasing of blowing rate. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.