Performance assessment of steel reheating furnace

In the process of steel making, rolling mills play a vital role in transforming the steel to finished products. Rolling mills at a steel producing plant consists of Light and Medium Merchant Mill and Wire Rod Mill. The blooms from Steel Melt Shop are charged into reheating furnaces of Light and Medium Merchant Mill for heating them up to 1200°C and subsequent rolling is performed with required specifications. Reheating furnace at LMMM of 200 ton/hr. capacity is running with the by-product energies as fuel and yielding limited output up to 150 ton/hr. of steel for rolling. This reduction in the furnace output was to be examined by performing Heat Balance over the furnace. The furnace parameters were collected for about 10 days to prepare an average heat balance of the reheating furnace. Improvements were made to augment the overall thermal efficiency of the furnace and the data is furnished.