The Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) hosted the United States Steel Corporation Iron-making Academy on Wednesday.
Engineers from U.S. Steel were trained using a blast furnace training package developed at CIVS in collaboration with U.S. Steel’s research and development team out of Pittsburgh. The blast furnace is a key component of steelmaking and has many complex processes and phenomena. Due to the intricacy and danger involved in the blast operations, CIVS developed a 3D visualization and simulation package which allows virtual immersion in the blast furnace in order to get a closer look at these difficult processes and for a better understanding of the conditions of the blast furnace in an accurate and interactive way.
“This interactive model helped me visualize the material flowing through the process which was very helpful in understanding the flow dynamics.”-Brian Koon, Fairfield Works.
With its training package and its 3D Immersive Theater, CIVS not only allowed the U.S. Steel engineers to view processes such as the cooling systems of the furnace and the melting of iron, but it allowed free-flying navigation within the virtual world and allowed the engineers to change the conditions of the furnace to observe the effects on the processes.
At CIVS, simulation and 3D visualization are used for communication and discovery. Visualization helps both non-experts and experts communicate allowing everyone to be on the same page. It allows for interaction and exploration into possible scenarios that cannot be recreated through any other means.
“The visualization and simulation offered by CIVS are revolutionizing the steel industry.” -Dr. Chenn Zhou, CIVS director.