The opensource DEM software Blaze-DEM was used for this project due to its GPU implementation and ability to model polyhedral particles. Q1/Year 1 of project involved the addition of code to Blaze-DEM in-order to enable the input of the complex blast furnace geometry as well as to mimic the feeding process which requires particles to be created as batches in the simulation. In the Q2/Year 1 the code was validated against experiment and two studies on the effect of particle shape on flow as well as mixing was done resulting in two published papers. Q3/ Year 1 involved a study on the effect of particle shape on blast furnace charging which consisted of both simulation and experiment building on the previous two papers . In the final quarter of Year 1 a paper on the work done in Q3 was submitted and an invited talk on blast furnace modelling at CPT 2019 in Melbourne was done. In addition to this two workshops and DEM and GPU computing were as given at the University of Surrey, ensuring knowledge transfer.
The first four months of Year 2 involved the development of models for heat transfer involving polyhedral particles as well as the development of experiments to validate the develop code. The next four months involved a study on the effect of heat transfer in packed beds using the developed models as well as a keynote talk on the effects of particle shape in blast furnace charging at the DEM 8 conference in the Netherlands. In the final three months of the project the developed software was presented within the group to enable uptake after the project ends, a final paper on the effect of particle shape on heat flow was submitted as well as an invited keynote talk INCHEM 2019, Tokyo was done.
