Research Article
Saliu Ojo Seidu, Adetunji Onig
Abstract
The actual state analysis of an operational Crucible Furnace was used to develop a scrap melting charge maximization program for efficient charge balancing in this study. Operational model focused on the heat balance and material charge analysis and distribution during melting in the crucible furnace. Charge calculation and maximization model was then developed from the theoretical material balancing using the state analysis of the crucible furnace melting from CAD analysis of the furnace. These were combined to develop the conceptual framework of a working simulation model to handle the melting prediction and correction for crucible scrap melting with dynamic melt chemistry upon every charge. The conceptual framework design was converted into schematics design and the Microsoft Visual Studio (2012) integrated development environment (IDE) was used for appropriate model-simulation application development. The developed simulation application was validated using industrial crucible melting production data in cast iron foundry for seven operation heats for robust analysis. Statistical analysis result of the functionality of the program showed correlation value of 0.98 on the average was observed with average standard error and significance measurement of 0.06 and 0.00007, respectively for elemental comparison between real spark analysis and the program.