TATA Steel is building its second blast furnace – with a volume of 5,873 cubic metres - at its Kalinganagar plant in Jaipur, India.

It will be the largest blast furnace in the world and has a designed capacity of 4.375 million tonnes a year.

The construction process has run smoothly since work began in June 2018.

CISDI is applying its digital design technology to the project to help TATA achieve smart construction and operations. This includes BIM simulation and parameterisation, PID (process and instrument diagram), virtual reality for training purposes and digital delivery.

Fact File:

1) BIM simulation for optimisation

The hot stove’s shell weight can be reduced by 5 per cent.

The hot and cold blast pipeline networks can be made safer by 30 and 15 per cent respectively.

The uniform distribution of the hot blast temperature can be improved by 10 per cent.

The casthouse platform temperature can be reduced by 1-2 deg C.

2) PID design

PID design co-ordinates multiple engineering disciplines online. CISDI has completed over 700,000 A1-sized drawings and collated automatic statistics from more than 13,000 data reports.

Through integration and development, CISDI’s two-dimensional PID can be generated seamlessly and accurately into three-dimensional data.

3) BIM parameterization

The cooling staves have been designed via the BIM parameterisation programme, saving 75 per cent of the labour time normally taken to produce models and drawings and shortening the master schedule by 66.7 per cent.

As a result, a higher quality and more efficient blast furnace proper system can be designed.

4) BIM coordinated design

Multiple engineering disciplines are co-ordinated online for BIM-based design. This technology has prevented over 1,500 potential collisions or interferences and negates the need for design changes and construction re-work. The quality of the entire project is improved.

5) Virtual reality training

The building information model has been introduced into a virtual reality platform to develop a tailored user experience and cost-effective training.

6) Digital delivery

The building information model has been introduced into the platform to associate with the drawings and suppliers’ data. Such a digital design can provide the model and data for construction and operations. This assists the client with their digital management of construction and operations.

An aerial view of the digitally-designed blast furnace 2 at TATA Steel’s Kalinganagar plant

A screenshot of CISDI’s digital design delivery platform