A system for estimating both thickness and wear state of refractory material (1) of a metallurgical furnace (12), including at least on processor including a database of simulated frequency domain data named simulated spectra representing simulated shock waves reflected in simulated refractory materials of known state and thickness, each simulated spectrum being correlated with both known state and thickness data of the considered simulated refractory material, wherein the at least one processor is configured to record a reflected shock wave as a time domain signal, and to convert it into frequency domain data named experimental spectrum, and are further configured to compare the experimental spectrum with at least a plurality of simulated spectra from the database, to determine the best fitting simulated spectrum with the experimental spectrum and to estimate thickness and state of the refractory material (1) of the furnace (12) using known state and thickness data correlated with the best fitting simulated spectrum.

A system for estimating both thickness and wear state of refractory material (1) of a metallurgical furnace (12), including at least on processor including a database of simulated frequency domain data named simulated spectra representing simulated shock waves reflected in simulated refractory materials of known state and thickness, each simulated spectrum being correlated with both known state and thickness data of the considered simulated refractory material, wherein the at least one processor is configured to record a reflected shock wave as a time domain signal, and to convert it into frequency domain data named experimental spectrum, and are further configured to compare the experimental spectrum with at least a plurality of simulated spectra from the database, to determine the best fitting simulated spectrum with the experimental spectrum and to estimate thickness and state of the refractory material (1) of the furnace (12) using known state and thickness data correlated with the best fitting simulated spectrum.

Imaging technology using high energy charged particles can be used to image an object of inspection such as a blast furnace. An example method of imaging a blast furnace includes performing a first moving operation by moving a first particle tracking detector and a second particle tracking detector up or down movement along a height of the blast furnace; performing a second moving operation by moving the first particle tracking detector and the second particle tracking detector clockwise or counterclockwise movement around the blast furnace; and receiving, by the first particle tracking detector, incoming charged particles; receiving, by the second particle tracking detector, outgoing charged particles transiting through the blast furnace; and producing an image of a volume of interest located in between the first particle tracking detector and the second particle tracking detector by processing electrical signals corresponding to the received incoming and outgoing charged particles.

A production facilities monitoring method monitors an operation status of a plurality of production facilities of a same kind located at a plurality of production sites and includes: a data information preparation step of aggregating operational data of each of the production facilities for each of the production sites; a data accumulation step of accumulating the operational data aggregated at the data information preparation step into a computer located at a data accumulation site; a data analysis step of analyzing a current operation status at each of the production facilities, using current operational data and past operational data accumulated at the data accumulation step; and an operation status determination step of determining whether operation is abnormal at each of the production facilities, based on an analysis result of the data analysis step.

A production facilities monitoring method monitors an operation status of a plurality of production facilities of a same kind located at a plurality of production sites and includes: a data information preparation step of aggregating operational data of each of the production facilities for each of the production sites; a data accumulation step of accumulating the operational data aggregated at the data information preparation step into a computer located at a data accumulation site; a data analysis step of analyzing a current operation status at each of the production facilities, using current operational data and past operational data accumulated at the data accumulation step; and an operation status determination step of determining whether operation is abnormal at each of the production facilities, based on an analysis result of the data analysis step.

A method for operating a blast furnace with which, even in the case where there is an increase in the powder ratio of coke to be charged into the blast furnace, it is possible to achieve the stabilization of blast furnace operation. The method includes blowing air through a tuyere disposed in a lower part of the blast furnace, successively measuring a particle size distribution of coke transported to the blast furnace, and adjusting at least one of a blast volume and a coke ratio in accordance with an index derived from the particle size distribution.

Disclosed is a blast furnace apparatus includes: a rotating chute; a plurality of tuyeres; a profile measurement device configured to measure surface profiles of a burden charged into the blast furnace through the rotating chute; and a blowing amount controller configured to control a blowing amount of at least one of hot blast or pulverized coal in each of the plurality of tuyeres, in which the profile measurement device includes: a radio wave distance meter installed on the blast furnace top and configured to measure the distance to the surface of the burden charged; and an arithmetic unit configured to derive the surface profiles of the burden on a basis of distance data for the entire blast furnace related to distances to the surface of the burden obtained by scanning a detection wave of the radio wave distance meter in the blast furnace in a circumferential direction.

Disclosed is a blast furnace apparatus includes: a rotating chute; a plurality of tuyeres; a profile measurement device configured to measure surface profiles of a burden charged into the blast furnace through the rotating chute; and a blowing amount controller configured to control a blowing amount of at least one of hot blast or pulverized coal in each of the plurality of tuyeres, in which the profile measurement device includes: a radio wave distance meter installed on the blast furnace top and configured to measure the distance to the surface of the burden charged; and an arithmetic unit configured to derive the surface profiles of the burden on a basis of distance data for the entire blast furnace related to distances to the surface of the burden obtained by scanning a detection wave of the radio wave distance meter in the blast furnace in a circumferential direction.

Disclosed is a method for estimating a blast furnace throat temperature based on a multilayer ore-to-coke ratio distribution model. According to the method, blast furnace equipment parameters and a burden distribution matrix are utilized, the burden layer profile of each layer is calculated according to the burden distribution movement process, a burden layer distribution model is established in combination with the descending process, and the ore-to-coke ratio of each burden layer is obtained. According to the method, the ore-to-coke ratio distribution of multiple layers and main parameters of a blast furnace are used as input, a generalized regression neural network is used for estimating the temperature at the corresponding measurement position of throat temperature, so as to realize the monitoring of throat temperature in the blast furnace process.

A method for detecting a fluctuation of a solidified layer, and a method for operating a blast furnace by employing the relevant method. In the method for detecting a fluctuation of a solidified layer, the fluctuation of the solidified layer in the lower part of a blast furnace is detected by using the amount of heat supplied to pig iron in the lower part of the blast furnace and the amount of heat in the pig iron tapped in a predetermined period.