Design of a Mechanical Device for the Optimization of the Burden Charge in the Blast Furnace's Hopper with the Discrete Element Method

The purpose of this work was to engineer a device that improves blast furnace's performance by optimizing material distribution in the hopper used in the charging system.

The discrete element method implemented in Rocky DEM was used to both calibrate virtual materials and to simulate the whole charging process. Then, the new device was optimized. Both calibration and optimization were performed through the coupling between modeFRONTIER, Rocky DEM and Onshape, an online CAD modeler.