Review of Our Investigations on Ladle Furnace

The LD-2 and slab caster shop of Tata Steel, Jamshedpur manufactures slabs. Tata Steel desired some studies on the ladle furnace (LF) of the shop. It sponsored project to Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC), Pune. It was undertaken as a collaborative work by the two organizations with team of engineers and scientists participating. The present author was then at IIT Kanpur and acted as advisor. The study was concerned with plain carbon aluminum-killed steel. The entire work was undertaken in three phases. Phase 1 involved flow and thermal modeling. Phase 2 was concerned with development of on-line reckoner (LFOR) for prediction and control of temperature and composition of molten steel in ladle furnace. Phase 3 was a short project concerned with modification of LFOR, when Tata Steel adopted Al-wire feeding at the OLP station. The present paper is a brief review of the entire work.