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This article focuses on the influence of simplification of thermophysical properties on computational modelling of heating process of steel billets in pusher-type reheating furnaces. The objective is to investigate the impact of the simplification of thermal conductivity and heat capacity on the temperature gradient within the material surface and the centre. The pusher-type reheating furnace is widely used in the steel industry for the reheating of steel billets before they are processed further. The heating process is complex, involving the transfer of heat from the combustion gases to the steel billets, and the temperature distribution within the material plays a critical role in determining the final quality of the product.The study uses a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the heating process of the steel billets, and the effects of simplification of thermophysical properties are analysed. The results show that the simplification of thermal conductivity and heat capacity leads to a significant overprediction of the temperature at the material surface, resulting in a higher temperature gradient between the surface and the centre of the billet. The simplified models also show a poor correlation with the experimental data.The study concludes that the simplification of thermophysical properties can result in significant errors in the computational modeling of the heating process of steel billets in pusher-type reheating furnaces. It is therefore recommended to use more accurate thermophysical property models to improve the accuracy of the simulation results. The study also highlights the importance of experimental validation of the computational models to ensure their accuracy and reliability in predicting the temperature distribution within the material.
Keywords: Reheating furnaces, steel properties, computational modelling© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.