Higher education in the Middle Urals was established by Lenin decree of on October 19, 1920. The structure of the Ural University provided a Polytechnic Institute with chemical-metallurgical faculty. The organizers of the educational process in the metallurgical chair were prominent Russian scientists and leaders of metallurgical plants in the Urals: Grum-Grzhimailo V.E., Sokolov I.A., Sergievskii B.P., Golovin F.A., Steinberg S.A. The authors have consistently reviewed the activities of the team of teachers in the period of industrialization of the country during the Second World War, in the postwar period and after the establishment of the Institute of Materials Science and Metallurgy in the Ural Federal University named after the fi rst President of RF B.N. Yeltsin.

Carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas – is formed in all industrial processes of iron and steel industry. We can identify three types of emissions of carbon dioxide of ferrous metallurgy processing: process, transit and through. Through emission of carbon dioxide of different processing is the sum of the integral emission of carbon dioxide of the process and transit. A classification of the processing in the iron industry on the mechanism of formation of carbon dioxide emissions is proposed. The authors have identified five types of processing, which include redistributions, respectively, heating furnace, converters, open-hearth furnaces, blast furnaces and coke batteries. The values of cross-cutting carbon dioxide emissions for the six combinations of steel production stages are presented.

In the changing global market scenario for raw materials for the steel industry, a number of novel iron- and steelmaking process technologies are being developed to provide the steel companies with economically-sustainable alternatives for iron- and steel-making. In addition, the steel industry is also focusing on reduction of energy consumption as well as green-house gas (GHG) emissions to address the crucial subject of climate change. Climate change is presenting new risks to the highly energy- and carbon-intensive, iron and steel industry. The industry needs to focus on reduction of energy consumption as GHG emissions to address climate change. Development of alternate iron- and steelmaking process technologies can provide steel companies with economically-sustainable alternatives for steel production. For managing climate change risks, novel modeling tools have been developed by Hatch to quantify and qualify potential energy savings and CO2 abatement within the iron and steel industry. The tool developed for abatement of greenhouse gas carbon is called G-CAPTM (Green-House Gas Carbon Abatement Process) while that developed for improving energy effi ciency is called En-MAPTM (Energy Management Action Planning). Evaluation of existing operations have shown that most integrated plants have GHG and energy abatement opportunities; on the other hand, the best-in-class plants may not have a lot of low-risk abatement opportunities left, even at high CO2 price. In this context, it is important to assess these critical issues for the alternate iron- and steelmaking technologies that have been developed. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of energy-effi ciency and GHG emissions for some selected iron- and steelmaking technologies that are being considered for implementation. In this work, Hatch’s G-CAP™ and En-MAP™ tools that were developed with the main objective of quantifying and qualifying the potential energy savings and CO2 abatement within the iron and steel industry, were employed in the evaluation conducted.

The intensification of steel refining at ladle treatment and improvement of production efficiency of modern steelmaking require the analytical description of mass transfer in conditions of gas stirring at ladle refining. The analysis of industrial data on the basis of standard models does not allow to describe adequately the real processes. The methods and results of estimation of mass transfer volume factor which can be considered as a key factor for dynamics of steel refining in conditions of gas stirring are presented in the paper. The analysis of industrial data on desulfurization of low- and medium-carbon metal at furnace-ladle (EAF) and vacuum degassing unit (VD) was made on the basis of proposed models of gas stirring and refining. New data on the correlation of stirring rates and volume mass transfer factor were found for EAF and VD processes of steel treatment. The adequacy of proposed models of refining processes was tested on the basis of correlation data on gas stirring rate and mass transfer factor and confirmed a good agreement with recommended process parameters and archived refining efficiency.

The paper presents the results of the design study of the material and heat balance on the existing furnace EAF-120 of company «Danieli». It is shown that the arrival of the heat in the oxidation of iron and other components of the charge is signifi cant, and the thermal regime and the whole process become signs of autogenous process. Signifi cant loss of chemical underburning indicate unsatisfactory organization of aerodynamic fl ows in the amount of working space of the furnace. Using a computer program SolidWorks Flow simulation the aerodynamic fl ow and the temperature fi eld in the cold charge location disposed between the electrodes and the inner wall surface of the furnace has been considered. The authors have recommended the rational way to install oxy-fuel burners, oxygen lances and the eductors for inputting carbonaceous material into the bath of the furnace.

The Bakal Mining Administration was asked to burn iron ores in a rotary furnace in the presence of solid fuel additives for more in-depth use of them. The kinetics studies of their characteristics of heat treatment in air at a heating rate of 10 grad./min made possible to identify seven process steps: drying, preheating dissociation of the carbonates, iron oxidation, formation of sparingly soluble silicate melt, accompanied by a change in their state, and the heat sealing conditions. The studies of changes of linear dimensions siderite samples during the isospeed heating made possible to establish the strengthening conditions for their structures in selected stages of heat treatment. The results of industrial test of firing of siderite of class (10 – 0) mm in a rotary furnace, heated with natural gas in the presence of additives coke are presented. The possibility of achieving the output burnt fraction to 62.07 % is described for the thermal efficiency of the unit – 77,27 %.

The article presents the study of connection between thermodynamics and kinetics of iron oxide reduction and production intensity. Model equations were developed for assessing the changes in degree of carbon monoxide use at the change in production intensity. Industrial data of blast furnace production with the useful volume of 2000 and 3200 confirmed the adequacy of the developed model. It was found that, the change in production intensity is accompanied by unsteady thermal state at high degree of developmental reproduction processes.

The experimental dependence of convective heat transfer from the open surface of the high-temperature furnace fan shaft to an environment at a different frequency of its rotation was obtained. It is shown that under comparable conditions the average heat transfer coefficient of the rotating shaft surface is 40 – 60 % higher than for single fixed cylinder being blown with air fl ow in the transverse direction. The method of rotating shaft cooling calculating is proposed and the mathematical formula that is suitable for estimating the bearings area temperature depending on fan design parameters and furnace operations is obtained. Calculations have shown that the shaft rotation speed increasing rapidly decreases bearings heating temperature in the range of 100 to 600 rpm. In case of further increase of the shaft speed the bearing temperature is almost stabilized. From the analysis of proposed estimated dependence that reduces the bearings heating at the selected speed and diameter of the shaft it is necessary to increase the shaft open surface length or to use materials with the least possible thermal conductivity. The presented dependencies can be used to develop high-temperature fans for heating and heat treatment furnaces.

Calculation of the external heat exchange in the combustion furnaces is always complicated because of insufficient knowledge of the convective heat transfer characteristics. It is extremely important to know the above-mentioned characteristics as the modern hating furnaces are equipped with the high-speed burners providing for running of the gas-air mixture at a speed of 100 – 150 m/sec. The present article demonstrates a procedure and results of the investigation of the complicated external heat transfer in the operating industrial furnace equipped with high-speed recuperative burners and lined with ceramic-and-fibrous blocks. The article also includes the recommendations on application of the submitted procedure and results of the abovementioned investigations.

The problem of non-stationary heat exchange in smelting zone of the blast furnace, considering features of process of a fi ltration of pig-iron and slag through coke nozzle was formulated. Blanket law consists in not oscillatory character of transients of heat exchange in a course. However this position is fair only under condition of a constancy of the relation of thermal capacities of streams of materials and gas on height of a considered site of a course that does not fully refl ect the character of development processes exchange of heat at blast furnace height. It is shown, that not oscillatory transient in a blast furnace is observed if the indignation infl uences identically on a sign the bottom and top steps of heat interchange, and oscillatory – if it makes the opposite impact on these zones of the heat interchange. Thus the reregulation size will be that more than more essentially on size and on a sign this distinction is.

Aluminum and silicon alloying of Cr – Ni – Mo steel has been investigated. The described steel is used in energetic and heavy machine building engineering. The main aim of the present work was to improve mechanical properties of the steel such as plasticity and impact strength. The high temperature X-ray analysis is applied for understanding the ratio of α- & γ-phases in various temperature ranges. The critical points were determined and it was shown that the aluminum addition expands the critical temperature region while the silicon addition only moves this region to the higher temperatures. The crystal lattice parameter of austenite is the smallest at 740 °С. Silicon addition makes this temperature higher up to 760 °С. The influence of aluminum is more intensive, the temperature is 780 °С.

Joint bar (fishplate) is an asymmetrical cross-section product with different mass elements – the web, the upper and lower bulbous heads. Technical standards specify the strict requirements on the joint bar mechanical properties and straightness. The microstructure after rolling (without heat treatment), after thermostrengthening according to the traditional technology – oil quenching, and accelerated water cooling technology has been studied by using optical and scanning electron microscope. The accelerated water cooling technology was the first implemented in industry for asymmetrical cross-section body. As a result, it was found that a high degree dispersion of the phases and the small grain size provided the best results in stable mechanical properties, which is typical for the sprayer system. The joint bar straightness is achieved in response to the cooling process controllability.

The results of the analysis of calculated expressions obtained by different researchers to determine the hydraulic resistance of the dense layer consisting of different types (spherical particles, pellets, particles of arbitrary shape) were presented. The powered hydraulic resistance coeffi cient was used as a criterion to identify common patterns depending on the hydraulic resistance of the layer on the temperature and the rate of fi ltration. It is shown that depending on the nature of the hydraulic resistance of the layer porosity hardly affects the shape of the particles. The authors have recommended the formula by which you can reliably calculate the coefficient of hydraulic resistance of the pellet layer in their natural filling and the absence of a signifi cant amount of detail, and therefore determine the energy loss in the layer and in general throughout the gas path in roasting plants.

A physical-and-mathematical pattern of calculation of the thermo-stressed condition of the cold work roll, being heated in the chamber fast (gradient) heating furnace for hardening of the working layer of the certain depth, has been demonstrated. The heating furnace consists of two sliding halves and is connected with the spraying unit. A roll subjected to heating runs on rollers and rotates during heating and hardening. Two heating conditions: forced one and more rational one, under which a speed of the roll heating is limited at the initial stage, have been compared. The authors have offered a steptype schedule of increasing the heating medium temperature during roll heating at which the maximum tensile stress does not exceed an acceptable value of 300 MPa. It is recommended to limit a heating speed at the initial stage of heat treatment to reduce the thermal stress.

The requirements, structure and architecture of an automated workplace «The technologist of domain shop», computer system of support of decision-making of the MES-level, introduced in CAM system at blast furnace plant of OJSC «Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Work» are considered. The short description of the basic modeling subsystems, and also the assumptions accepted in the course of mathematical modeling is presented. The use of the developed system allows the engineering-technological personnel operatively to carry out the analysis of industrial situations of blast-furnace shop, to decide a number of technological problems of management of thermal, gas dynamic and slag modes of blast-furnace smelting, and also to make calculation of optimum structure iron-ore materials, that finally provides the increase of technical and economic indicators of work of blast-furnace manufacture.

The Expert System (ES) was developed at the Ural Federal University for the analysis and design of bar rolling technologies and it can be used in the optimization of existing and design of new processes of bar rolling. For the operation of the ES a knowledge base was created about the subject area, based on theoretical and experimental studies, as well as generalizations of experience in the production of rolled bars at existing mills. A comprehensive mathematical model of calculation of rolling passes and technological rolling, created on the basis of modern ideas about the mechanics of deformable bodies, allows the calculation of a full range of technological and energy-power parameters of the simulated process. The ES software was developed for operational system Windows using the visual programming environment of Borland C++ Builder.