Numerical simulation of temperature distribution of a billet during conveyance

Abstract

The temperature measurement of billets in iron and steel industry during conveyance is important to the production but difficult. Thus, the purpose of this research was to develop a numerical simulation model in order to predict the temperature distribution of a billet during conveyance and verified the result from simulation with billet temperature data from a thermal camera.

In this research two-dimensional finite-difference fully implicit method was applied to solve the heat conduction inside the billet to calculate billet temperature distribution. The billet in the model was considered to have heat loss to surrounding from only convection and radiation. The temperature distribution of billet from the simulation was used to calculate the heat loss rate compared to the heat energy consumption needed to heat a billet after conveyance for various times to 1250 degree Celsius.

The research results indicated that the temperature distribution of a billet from the simulation was differed to the data from the thermal camera within the range of ± 9.827 %. This research would possibly benefit the improvement of temperature measurement and control system including heat loss control system of billets in the production line.