Design of a Mathematical Model of Pig Iron Cooling Between a Blast Furnace and an Oxygen Converter

Information about the temperature of pig iron between tapping from the blast furnace and pouring it into the oxygen converter is very important, especially from the point of view of process control as an input to the control system. However, pig iron is transported in a torpedo car and the possibilities of measuring the temperature of pig iron are limited and are connected only to some specific place and time. To know the temperature between these measurements, it is necessary to create a mathematical model as a tool that will allow establishing or indirectly measuring the temperature of the pig iron, specifically in the torpedo car. The article deals with the design of a mathematical model of pig iron cooling. Elementary models of partial processes such as heat transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation, as well as the accumulation of thermal energy, are described. The main mathematical model based on the heat balance of the process of cooling pig iron in the torpedo car is created from the elementary models. The mathematical model was implemented in the MATLAB environment. At the end of the article, examples of simulations are presented, and the possibilities of using the mathematical model are described.