4. Global modeling of the blast furnace

Over the past few decades, considerable progress has been made in blast furnace modelling, with the development of increasingly complex numerical models for simulating overall blast furnace operation, with the dual aim of understanding phenomena and controlling the furnace. Modeling has gone hand in hand with the development of instrumentation and measurements to feed the models and validate them. Increased computing power has led to increasingly sophisticated models that take into account the full range of blast furnace phenomena.

A distinction can be made between diagnostic models, which characterize the state of the device as a function of measured input data, and predictive models, which aim to simulate the future impact of a change in input parameters. Among the main drivers of these developments are massive coal injections, the quest for minimum consumption...