Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
The coil cooling and storage unit (CCSU) is used to cool cold-rolled coils to the temper rolling
temperature after the annealing cycle is over at the batch annealing furnace (BAF) in a cold rolling
mill (CRM). In the CCSU, the coils are kept on the cooling bases for any fixed time irrespective of the
grade and tonnage. Therefore, the need for a mathematical model to accurately predict the cooling
time of the coils was felt. The current study involves experimental and numerical analysis of a stack of
coils with respect to heat transfer and fluid flow. A comparative study was carried out to ascertain the
relative merits of convectors and ‘‘C’’ inserts (CIs) in the cooling the coils. The air flow distribution
for the case of different convectors and CIs was measured by means of a full scale physical model.
Two different mathematical models were applied to model the fluid flow and flow distribution through
the stack of coils. The first flow model uses the hydraulic resistance concept for estimating the air flow
rate distribution, whereas the second flow model uses commercial computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) software and predicts the velocity distribution in the flow path between two coils in a stack.
The predictions from these two models compare well with the experimental data. The flow models
were used to calculate the average heat-transfer coefficient in different flow passages in a stack. The
heat-transfer coefficients thus obtained were used to tune and validate a two-dimensional transient
heat-transfer model of coils. The heat-transfer model predicts the cooling time of coils accurately and
also suggests a possible reduction of cooling time if CIs are used in place of convectors.
I. INTRODUCTION ent designs. For example, the base convectors have 16 short
and equal numbers of long fins on each side, whereas the
COLD-ROLLED coils are annealed in the batch anneal- intermediate convectors may have 20 short and long fins
ing furnace (BAF) for obtaining the desired properties and each on both sides. The top convectors, on the other hand,
mechanical strength to render the cold-rolled sheets ame- have 16 long fins only on one side with the fin thickness
nable to subsequent forming operations (e.g., deep drawing nearly double those of the previous two types. Figure 1(b)
of auto body parts). In the BAF, the coils are stacked inside shows the top view of a typical base convector plate.
a furnace and annealed for long hours (40 to 50 hours) in a The stacking as well as the destacking of coils is a time-
hydrogen atmosphere. There are three stages in the anneal- consuming process, which may take 30 to 45 minutes for a
ing cycle, namely, heating, soaking, and cooling. The coils single stack depending upon the number of coils. In order
are heated to a temperature of 720 °C and kept for soaking to reduce the time loss during stacking and destacking, the
at that temperature for a certain time before they are cooled intermediate convectors can be replaced by ‘‘C’’ inserts
at a slower rate first (up to 500 °C) and then at a faster rate (CIs). Figure 2(a) shows a CI with typical dimension. The
using a bypass cooling system until the hot spot (core) of arrangement of CIs is such that between two coils, there are
the coils reaches 160 °C. four CIs at diametrically opposite locations making a 90
It is the coil cooling and storage unit (CCSU) in which deg angular distance (refer to Figure 2(b) for arrangement).
the coils are made to pass through a final cooling step so The present work investigates the effect of using CIs on the
that the hot spot temperature comes down to around 50 °C. cooling time of coils in CCSU as compared to the practice
Thereafter, the coils may be taken to the skin pass mill with convectors by predicting the cooling time of coils.
(SPM) for final property and surface finish compliance. Cooling of the coils is done by passing dehumidified air
In the CCSU, identical coil stacks are built after finishing from the bottom of the stack through the eyes of the coils
the cooling cycle on the annealing bases at the BAF. Figure and the convector plates (or the CIs). After stacking, each
1(a) shows a typical stack configuration for a CCSU base stack is covered by a single hood in order to collect the
with four coils. The first coil of the stack is placed on a dehumidified air that has passed the convectors or CIs. To
bottom convector plate (CP). An intermediate convector avoid oxidation of the outer layers, the relative humidity of
plate is placed between each two coils of a stack. A top the recirculated air for cooling the coils has to be less than
convector plate is placed above the top coil of a stack. 29 pct.
These three types of convector plates normally have differ-
II. METHODOLOGY
TATHAGATA BHATTACHARYA, DEBADI CHAKRABORTY, and
VIKAS SINGH, Researchers, are with Research and Development, Tata A. Overview
Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, PIN 831001, India. Contact e-mail:
tathabhatt@yahoo.com Extensive work[1–18] has been carried out on the process
Manuscript submitted September 2, 2005. of batch annealing furnaces, but there appears to be very
k2
n t ¼ Cm f m [6]
e
The kinetic turbulent energy k and its dissipation e are
determined using the following transport equations, respec-
tively:
@U j k @ nt @k
5 n1 1 Pk e [7]
@xj @xj sk @xj
Fig. 4—(a) The geometry of the divergent flow passage between two long
@U j e @ nt @e e fins on the convector plate. The obstructing midbar and short fins (making
5 n1 1 ðC1 f 1 Pk C2 f 2 eÞ [8] a T shape) could also be seen in the figure. (b) The geometry of the flow
@xj @xj se @xj k passage between two CIs separated radially by 90 deg on top of a coil.
Percentage Distribution
Total Flow (m3/hr) Base Convector CP 2 CP 3 CP 4 Top Convector
1775 (200-mm WC) 10 10 18 20 42
2173 (300-mm WC) 10 11 18 20 41
2509 (400-mm WC) 13 17 23 21 26
Range (approximately) 10 to 13 10 to 17 18 to 23 20 to 21 26 to 42
Table II. Percentage Distribution of Air Flow Through Different CI Location for Three Different Input
Flow Rates in the Physical Model
Percentage Distribution
Total Flow (m3/hr) Base Convector CI 2 CI 3 CI 4 Top Convector
1775 (200-mm WC) 9 14 19 18 40
2173 (300-mm WC) 10 17 21 19 33
2509 (400-mm WC) 9 16 20 19 36
Range (approximately) 9 and 10 14 to 17 19 to 21 18 to 19 33 to 40
Fig. 9—Average velocities at the outlet of flow passages (at coil OD)
through different convector positions (base to top) for three flow rates in Fig. 11—Comparison of average velocity of air passing through convectors
the physical model. and CIs for a flow rate of 2509 m3/h in the physical model.
Fig. 12—Velocity (m/s) distribution at a plane (a) located 24 mm from bottom, (b) located 14 mm from bottom (i.e., mid plane), and (c) at the outlet of the
divergent flow passage between two long fins in the case of CP 1. The total input flow rate entering the stack was assumed to be 1775 m3/h (200-mm WC) in
the simulation.
Fig. 13—Velocity (m/s) distribution (a) on the midplane and (b) at the outlet of the flow passage between two CIs located on top of the base coil. The total
input flow rate entering the stack was assumed to be 1775 m3/h (200-mm WC) in the simulation.
REFERENCES
1. S.S. Sahay: J. Phys. IV, 2004, vol. 140, pp. 809-17.
2. S.S. Sahay, A.M. Kumar, and A. Chatterjee: Ironmaking and Steel-
Fig. 16—Different contour plots showing spatial temperature distribution making, 2004, vol. 31, pp. 144-52.
after different hours of cooling of the coil obtained from the heat-transfer 3. B. Sarkar, B.K. Jha, and A. Deva: J. Mater. Eng. Performance, 2004,
model. vol. 13, pp. 361-65.
4. J. Shi and D. Cui: Mater. Manuf. Processes, 2003, vol. 18, pp. 51-66.
5. S.S. Sahay and A.M. Kumar: Mater. Manuf. Processes, 2002, vol. 17,
the coil tonnage and grade. For example, the coil for which pp. 439-53.
the mathematical model was validated was kept for 50 6. R.D.F. Antunes, M. Das Gracas, and M.M. Cesar: Metal. Mater. ABM,
2002, vol. 57, pp. 18-23.
hours on the cooling base before it was sent to storage or 7. P.K. Roy, S.M. Merchant, and S. Kaushal: J. Electron. Mater., 2001,
SPM. Therefore, we can clearly appreciate the fact that vol. 30, pp. 1578-83.
there could have been a savings of nearly 14 hours if the 8. S.S. Sahay, A.M. Kumar, S.B. Singh, A.N. Bhagat, and M.S.S. Sharma:
cooling time was optimized with a mathematical model. Tata Search, 2001, pp. 39-46.
For a typical four coil stack (strip width 1485 mm), cooling 9. X. Peng, X. Wang, Z. Ru, and Q. Cao: J. Univ. Sci. Technol. Beijing,
2000, vol. 22, pp. 223-26.
down from the 160 °C hot spot temperature to the 50 °C hot 10. A. Buckley, A.J. Moses, and L. Trollope: Ironmaking and Steelmaking,
spot temperature in the CCSU takes nearly 47 hours if con- 1999, vol. 26, pp. 477-82.
vectors are used for stacking.[29] For the same strip width, 11. C.J. Kang and C.D. Huang: Technol. Training (Taiwan), 1999, vol. 24,
the present mathematical model provides nearly 45 hours to pp. 1-10.
12. A. Fouarge, L. Chefneux, M. Cambier, and H. Meunier: Cahiers d’In-
cool if CIs are used. So, with the use of CIs, the cooling time formations Techn., 1995, vol. 92, pp. 945-51.
is expected to be reduced. This can only be realized with the 13. K. Steck, K.F. Huttebraucker, and H. Fischer: METEC Congr. 94, 2nd
proper application of the mathematical model to accurately Eur. Continuous Casting Conf., 6th Int. Rolling Conf., Dusseldorf,
predict the cooling time while using CIs. Germany, 1994, vol. 2, pp. 319-22.
14. W. Scheuermann, P. Wittler, and T. Bovalina: Metallurgical Plant and
Technology International, 1993, vol. 16, pp. 140-42, 144, 146, 148,
D. Application of the Heat-Transfer Model 150.
15. R.I.L. Guthrie: Engineering in Process Metallurgy, Oxford University
A lookup table has been constructed with the off-line Press, New York, NY, 1989.
data produced for the cooling time of several thousand coils 16. A.R. Perrin, R.I.L. Guthrie, and B.C. Stonehill: Iron Steelmaker, 1988,
having different dimensions. The standard cooling time vol. 15, pp. 27-33.
data for a particular stack could be viewed through the 17. Y. Jaluria and K.E. Torran Computational Heat Transfer, 1st ed.,
Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, Washington, DC, 1986.
look-up table as soon as a stack of coils was built. This 18. K.V.V. Iyer: Steel India, 1984, vol. 7, pp. 43-53.
suggested cooling time would be used by the operator to 19. FLUENTÒ 6.1 User’s Guide, Fluent Inc., Lebanon, NH, 2003.
determine the duration of cooling for a particular stack. The 20. I.E. Idelchik: Handbook of Hydraulic Resistance, 3rd ed., CRC Press,
undercooling or overcooling of coils, thus, can be mini- Boca Raton, FL, 1994.
mized by reducing the human intervention. 21. A. Roth: Vacuum Technology, 3rd ed., Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1990.
22. S.V. Patankar: Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, Hemisphere,
New York, NY, 1980.
23. B.E. Launder and D.B. Spalding: Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng.,
IV. CONCLUSIONS 1974, vol. 3, pp. 269-89.
24. M.N. Ozisik: Finite Difference Methods in Heat Transfer, 2nd ed.,
The following conclusions can be drawn in view of the CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1995.
observations made in the preceding sections. 25. F.P. Incropera and D.P. DeWitt: Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer, 3rd ed., John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 1990.
1. The air flow distribution through different convectors or 26. S. Kakac and Y. Yener: Convective Heat Transfer, 2nd ed., CRC Press,
CIs in a stack falls within a close range for different Boca Raton, FL, 1995.
input flow rates. The distribution is therefore independ- 27. L.C. Burmeister: Convective Heat Transfer, 2nd ed., John Wiley &
ent of the flow rate entering a base. Sons, New York, NY, 1993.
28. F. Kreith and M.S. Bohn: Principles of Heat Transfer, 6th ed., Harper
2. The velocity of air on the top or bottom of any coil and Row, New York, NY, 2000.
increases if intermediate convectors are replaced by 29. Performance Guarantee Test Results for Tata Steel: Technical Manual
CIs. Therefore, it results in an increased heat-transfer for Batch Annealing Furnace, LOI Thermoprocess Gmbh, Germany, 2000.