Experimental study on characteristics of flame front in the iron ore sintering process

The combustion of solid fuel supplies heat in an iron ore sintering bed. The quality and productivity of the process are strongly dependent on the descending flame front. In this paper, sintering pot experiments are carried out to characterise the detail information of flame front in the sintering bed. The temperature-time profiles at different axial positions of the bed are measured continuously using thermocouples. Quantitative parameters are analysed on the basis of the temperature-time profiles, including peak temperature, duration time of high temperature (DTHT) and flame front speed (FFS). As the sintering process progresses, the trends of local peak temperatures, DTHTs and FFSes in height direction are observed, and the differences are reasonably explained. Moreover, higher coke content results in higher peak temperature, longer DTHT and lower FFS. However, higher suction pressure leads to lower peak temperature, shorter DTHT and higher FFS.