A fundamental study of raceway size in two dimensions

Blast furnace raceway zones are formed by the force of the air blast injected through the tuyeres evacuating a region of the packed bed directly in front of these tuyeres. Raceway depths in blast furnaces have been historically predicted through the use of empirical correlations based on measurements on cold and hot models. These correlations are not found to be universal in application, however, with many researchers finding only fair agreement between their experi-mental data and the correlations proposed by other researchers. We present here an alternative physical mechanism approach for raceway formation based on examination of the fundamental properties of the system. The study includes two-dimensional experiments where raceway depths and shapes are measured and an accompanying theoretical and numerical analysis of the under-lying mechanisms. Gas flow distributions around the raceway zone are also examined. It is found that the raceway size for given blast conditions and particle properties is such that the total gas drag on the solids vertically above the raceway balances the solid bed weight, with some allowance for solid holdup by walls. The formulation of this theory leads to the further conclusion that the total surface area of the raceway walls as a fraction of the horizontal cross-sectional area of the container or furnace is a unique function of three factors: (a) the gas flow rate as a fraction of the gas flow rate required to fluidize the bed, (b) a particle Reynolds number calculated at the particle's incipient fluidization velocity, and (c) the shape of the horizontal cross section of the bed.