Effect of the Main Feeding Belt Position on Burden Distribution during the Charging Process of Bell-less Top Blast Furnace with Two Parallel Hoppers

Based on an actual 4070 m(3) bell-less top blast furnace with two parallel hoppers in China, a full model of bell-less top mainly consisting of a bunker, a main feeding belt, a switch chute, two parallel hoppers, a central throat tube, a rotating chute and a throat of blast furnace was established in this study. Specifically, the angle between the centerline of the main feeding belt and the symmetry plane of two parallel hoppers is 22 degrees. Then the processes of coke charging into and discharging from the left hopper and right hopper were calculated by the discrete element method (DEM) model, respectively. The calculation results show that the burden distribution of the left hopper and right hopper was not symmetric, which caused the asymmetric and uneven distribution of coke in the radial and circumferential direction of stock surface, respectively. In the case of coke was discharged from the left hopper, the total volume of coke in the radial region 1 to 9 was smaller than that in the radial region 12 to 20 of stock surface. And the total volume of coke in the circumferential region 1 to 4 was larger than that in the circumferential region 5 to 8 of stock surface. However, the burden distribution of stock surface was contrary when coke was discharged from the right hopper.