THE MODELING OF THE HARDENING

KINETICS
By Ph.D. Igor Bobin and Ph.D. Natalia Petrovskaya

Often in the metallurgy and coal industry, products and semi-products do not
have the necessary strength. It takes time to harden them. Sometimes it takes a few
minutes or many hours. These processes also can have delay. Therefore, studying the
kinetics of hardening is an important task.
The most famous examples for metallurgists are pelletizing of iron ore or
briquetting of coal and peat. The kinetics of briquette hardening is shown in the
figures 1 and 2.
We studied the kinetics of briquettes hardening during drying under natural
and artificial conditions.
As a result of this, Ph.D. Igor Bobin proposed his own operational formulas
(1) and (2) of the first and second order for the practical modeling of hardening
kinetics.

The operational formula of the hardening kinetics.

Primer order

Rs max rs 0
Ws ( s ) e s rs 0
T s 1 (1)
Ph.D. Igor Bobin, 2017
where Rs max maximum of the compressive strength of specimen (Pa);
rs0 initial level of the compressive strength of specimen (Pa);
T time constant of the hardening (secs);
time delay of the hardening (secs);
s Laplace complex variable.

The operational formula of the hardening kinetics.

Second order

Rs max rs 0
Ws ( s ) e s( tr ) rs 0
(T2 s 1) 2 (2)
Ph.D. Igor Bobin, 2017
where Rs max maximum of the compressive strength of specimen (Pa);
rs0 initial level of the compressive strength of specimen (Pa);
T2 time constant of the hardening (secs);
time delay of the hardening (secs);
tr time of transition delay of the hardening (secs);
s Laplace complex variable.

The formulas (1) and (2) provide accuracy and convenience. It does not

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require special skills and the purchase of special programs. A general program like
MATLAB (registered trademark) is sufficient or other universal system of computer
mathematics too. This is an important advantage of the approach.

Fig 1. The hardening kinetic curves obtained at the modeling by formulas

(1) - artificial desiccation and (2) - native desiccation. Time is presented
in seconds.

Fig 2. The hardening kinetic curves obtained at the modeling by formulas

(1) - artificial desiccation and (2) - native desiccation. Time is presented
in hours.

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 The Dr. I. Bobin's operational formulas of the hardening kinetics can be used in:
1. Metallurgy. When producing metals and alloys
2. Mining and metallurgy. At the pelletizing of iron ore and other products.
3. Mining and metallurgy. When manufacturing briquettes from coal, coke,
anthracite, peat and gold, copper, nickel, manganese ore.
4. Mining. At the storage of tailings produced by extrusion.
5. Construction business. At the making products from concrete, cement,
asphalt and other composite mixtures.
6. Chemical industry. At the production of granules from dry reagents.
7. Food industry. At the pelletizing of animal feeds.
8. Pharmaceutical industry. When making tablets.

Thus, Bobin's formulas can be used everywhere with success where a product
(or semi-product) is obtained, which acquires strength over time.

Bobin's formulas provide very high accuracy of calculations when using

MATLAB functions of numerical integration and it's almost free.

Ph.D. Igor Bobin, Ph.D. Natalia Petrovskaya, 25-08-2017