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CSIR-NML NEWSLETTER JULY- 2021
Get PDFSummary of significant activities
For the period January, 2021,
CSIR-National Metallurgical Laborator
Increase in energy efficiency of a steel billet reheating furnace by heat balance study and process improvement
No full textSteel is the inevitable material for the infrastructure and has the strategic importance for the growth of the country. Iron and steel making industry is one of the most energy-intensive industries, with 5% of the worlds total energy consumption. Therefore, it is required to develop suitable and efficient energy management during various processing in steel plants. Both academic and industrial research is going on worldwide to increase the energy efficiency for reducing the energy cost imparted due to application of reheating furnaces in various metallurgical process. Reheating furnaces are widely used in the Iron and Steel Industry to reheat the semi-finished products like slabs or billets to the rolling temperature at 1250 °C. Reheating furnace is one of the major energy consuming equipment for rolling mills. It is also important to optimize the fuel consumption in this reheating process to avoid any overheating of the steel material which may result in the poor quality of the final product. The aim of this investigation is to conduct an analysis to explore possibilities for the improvement in the energy efficiency of an operating natural gas fired reheating furnace. Some important efficiency improvement measurements were conducted and the fuel efficiency improved by 21% along with the productivity increased by 11%. As a result of these investigations, some energy saving opportunities were ascertained. These measures culminate in the overall projected fiscal savings of INR 264 million/year. Our study not only provides efficient solutions to steel industry for proper energy utilization, but also offers ways for the self-innovation of other academic and laboratory scale research activity
Artificial neural network modeling and experimental investigation to characterize the dewatering performance of a hydrocyclone
No full textDewatering in mineral processing industries is of paramount importance as most wet beneficiation of minerals needs removal of water. For this purpose, we have evaluated a 50.8 mm diameter hydrocyclone in order to assess whether it can be used as a partial replacement for a thickener. A multi-layer perceptron based artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to characterise the dewatering performance of a hydrocyclone using experimentally generated data for silica and magnetite. Parametric sensitivity analysis was undertaken by studying the influence of vortex finder diameter, spigot diameter and inlet pressure on dewatering performance. The ANN model predictions showed that solid recovery to underflow increases and water recovery to overflow decreases with increasing spigot diameter whereas solid recovery to underflow decreases and water recovery to overflow increases with increased vortex finder diameter. Both increase monotonically with increase in inlet pressure. The neural model prediction was successfully validated with the experimental data
Quality improvement of heat altered coals: A preliminary feasibility study
No full textMagmatic intrusion of coal results in plethora of alterations in both chemical and physical properties. Such alterations affect both organic and inorganic components in coal in addition to surface chemistry modifications. Beneficiation processes largely depends on the surface chemistry of coals. Heat affected coals are challenging to beneficiate owing to their unique surface properties compared to bituminous coals. In our present work, we have successfully beneficiated heat altered coal from Jharia Coalfield, India, with 28% ash content. The proposed beneficiation process combining micronization and oil agglomeration could reduce the ash content to 10%, which is approximately 60% reduction from parent coal. The organic matter recovery has been around 80% for different particle sizes along with enhancement of volatile matter content from 7% in parent coal to nearly 27% in agglomerated clean coal
E-Profiling R&D Involvement/Earnings of Researchers: A G2E Tool for Performance Management at CSIR-NML
Get PDFCSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (CSIR-NML) has launched a number of initiatives in different perspectives of e-Government. The ‘Mandays-Involvement’ website was implemented by the laboratory in Government to Employee (G2E) perspective i.e. facilitating its R&D Manpower by providing data with respect to their own performance parameters through a single window. The development & implementation of the website had two major objectives : (1) to provide a system to the researchers for tracking and improving their own performance with respect to mandays and External Cash Flow (ECF) generation (2) to equip the management with a tool to enhance the organizational performance and enable optimum employee utilization. Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) approach was followed for the web-based system development and Iterative model was used. Open source web development tools i.e. Php, My-Sql and CSS were used for the system development. The new system helped in detailed profiling of current and future assignment of the researchers so as to have a check over preference based allocation of work and providing equal opportunities of work to all. The percentage average mandays utilization was stabilized after the implementation of the website. The percentage under and over engagements of researchers in R&D projects was controlled and reduced. The system outputs are utilized for R&D Team formation, Project approvals and Annual Performance Evaluations. This new information system acts as a Decision Support System (DSS) that helps the management to align its organizational policies towards the Future Research Projects and R&D Manpower
Evolution of Substructure of a Non-equiatomic FeMnCrCo High Entropy Alloy Deformed at Ambient Temperature (vol 50, pg 128, 2019)
No full textIn the original article, the second and third column headings are transposed in Table II
Effect of cooling rate on the evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of nonisothermally partitioned steels
No full textIn the present investigation, multiphase microstructures containing a combination of ferrite, martensite, retained austenite and carbides have been produced by altering the cooling rate in low alloy steels. The mechanical properties have been evaluated and correlated with ensuing microstructural features. The as-cast alloys were austenitized, hot rolled to about 93% reduction in thickness, followed by cooling to 200 °C on the run-out table. The cooling rates, namely 50 and 70 °C/s, were employed for this study. The steel plates were then cooled slowly to room temperature in a furnace to simulate the nonisothermal partitioning, similar to the hot-rolled coil cooling. The results show that the alloy with lower carbon and Mn content (Alloy-1) reveal ferrite formation (35.4 ± 4.1 vol%) at the cooling rate of 50 °C/s. However, at a higher cooling rate of 70 °C/s, ferrite formation was circumvented and the presence of martensite, retained austenite (6.3 ± 0.13 vol%) and carbides were observed. Although no significant difference was observed in the hardness and strength values for these two cooling rates, the presence of retained austenite at a higher cooling rate (i.e. 70 °C/s) led to better ductility and impact toughness. In the other alloy, with higher carbon and Mn addition (Alloy-2), the ferrite formation was considerably reduced even for the cooling rate of 50 °C/s. As a result, it showed higher hardness and strength (~1.5–2.0 times), with a concurrent decrease in the ductility and impact toughness, in comparison to Alloy-1
Effect of annealing treatment on magnetic texture of cold rolled ULC steel
No full textAnisotropic behaviors of cold rolled and annealed ULC steels are evaluated by orientation imaging microscopy (OIM) and magnetic Barkhausen emission (MBE) techniques. The MBE voltage is found higher along RD than TD, indicating the presence of favorable magnetic easy axis along RD for both 50 and 80% cold rolled steels. The recovery occurred at low temperature (T 500 degree C) annealing leads to an abrupt drop of ‘k’ value for both cold rolled steels. Furthermore, the kernel average misorientation map, obtained from OIM, decreases with increasing annealing temperatures
Thermodynamic Modelling of Effect of Flux on the Liquidus Temperatures and Phase transitions in Coal Ash
No full textPlant shutdowns due to the accumulation of ash materials in the boilers is a commonly practiced problem in thermal power sectors. Cleaning of ash products at regular intervals need to be necessary for maintaining the good furnace operation conditions. Use of slagging technology is the best practice for the removal of high temperature ash products, in which the melting temperature of ash is lowered by using the additive technology. In this paper, the properties of ash products formed during the combustion of low grade Indian coal were analyzed in terms of proximate and ash fusion temperature analysis. The effect of flux addition on the slagging behavior of Indian coal ash was analyzed. The AFT analysis of Indian origin coal ash shows that it is of non-fusible type. The formation of high temperature stable phases like kaolinite and quartz are the reason for high AFT temperatures in Indian origin coal
Partial substitution of coke breeze with biomass and charcoal in metallurgical sintering
No full textThis study investigates the sintering behavior of iron ore and its modification regarding the conventional and alternative fuel delivery systems. The modification aims to find an established alternative source of fuel for sintering which would be greener and cleaner. In the process, it will additionally facilitate the development of sustainable technology for cleaner production. The novel strategy mentioned here depends on biomass for heating and reduction purposes. Even though biomass is yet to be validated as a fuel source, there have been widespread research activities across the globe on its usage and efficacy as an alternate fuel source. Previously, several experiments failed in developing the desired quality of sinter by complete substitution with biomass. In the present study, sintering was carried out with variable proportions of biomass and coke to seek out the optimum quantity of biomass that could effectively replace coke. It succeeded in replacing coke by 10% of sawdust, 30% of wood charcoal, and 30% by a combination of sawdust and charcoal. The temperature-time profile indicated the potential of charcoal to generate the maximum temperature in the shortest interval. An opposite response was recorded in the case of sawdust. Coke was found to generate a relatively lower temperature in a relatively long period as compared to charcoal. Sinter reducibility and strength properties were also examined during the present study to determine the technical feasibility of the suggested method