Abstract

This technical article describes a numerical (transient computational fluid dynamics) simulation applied to study the suction efficiency of a canopy hood in a steel plant’s electric arc furnace with a view to increasing it.
A base case was simulated first after which various geometrical and event modifications were simulated in an optimization loop to identify the best potential geometry to increase the capture of dust from the environment. A standard post-processing procedure was created to easily compare the different cases.
The CFD approach was shown to be highly relevant to shorten time to market and reduce the amount of solution testing required.

The aim of this study was the quantitative and qualitative characterization of an existing canopy hood configuration for use in a steel plant. The dust extraction in the current device did not seem optimal. Possible improvements that targeted a dust capture efficiency of 90% were studied using the Ansys Fluent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code.