"Deeply cherish the memory of Mr. Wu Qichang, an iron-making technical expert, blast furnace engineering design expert, and national engineering survey and design master. For half a century, Master Wu has conducted in-depth exploration and research on the development of China's blast furnace ironmaking technology, and has achieved a series of major innovations. He has trained a large number of professionals in China's blast furnace ironmaking. The intensive work in the field of blast furnace hot blast stove gave Dundun teachings and selfless guidance. Thanks to Master Wu for his great contribution to China's ironmaking industry! Thank Master Wu for his care and support for Anneke! May the master in the academic paradise, calm and peaceful!"
China's famous ironmaking technology expert, blast furnace engineering design expert, former Beijing Iron and Steel Design and Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Institute, now renamed as China Metallurgical Jingcheng Engineering Technology Co., Ltd.) deputy chief engineer, professor-level senior engineer, national engineering survey and design master Mr. Wu Qichang died of illness on July 2, 2021 at the age of 82.
Master Wu Qichang was born in August 1938 in Xingning County, Guangdong Province. In September 1962, he graduated from Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel (now Beijing University of Science and Technology) majoring in iron and steel metallurgy; in September of the same year, he graduated and was assigned to Beijing Institute to engage in ironmaking engineering design and research, and successively served as designer, main designer, and professional team leader., Director of Ironmaking Office, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Institute, etc. In October 1993, he received a special government allowance from the State Council; in December 2000, he was elected as the third batch of national engineering survey and design masters. He is the first expert in my country's blast furnace ironmaking design industry to obtain the honorary title of national engineering survey and design master. In the field of national metallurgical engineering design, It has important academic influence and enjoys high academic prestige.
As a well-known blast furnace ironmaking engineering design expert in my country, Master Wu Qichong has made important contributions in promoting the progress of my country's blast furnace engineering design and the development of key equipment with his serious and dedicated work attitude, rigorous and realistic scientific spirit, and outstanding work performance. Contribution and remarkable achievements. He has long been committed to the development, promotion and application of blast furnace longevity technology, and participated in the national "Eighth Five-Year" and "Ninth Five-Year" scientific and technological research projects and the "Ninth Five-Year" scientific and technological climbing program projects, which greatly improved the service life of blast furnaces in my country. He has presided over and undertaken the engineering design, overhaul and renovation design of 17 blast furnaces and direct reduction iron engineering design of rotary kilns. He has won the gold award of national excellent engineering design, the first prize of provincial and ministerial excellent engineering design, and the national outstanding individual award for the promotion of scientific and technological achievements. In his later years, Master Wu Qichong devoted himself to the domestic design, research and application of blast furnace copper cooling wall, and actively promoted the research and application of blast furnace copper cooling wall technology in my country, making this technology in the forefront of the world. At the same time, he also actively promoted the development and application of high-efficiency lattice bricks for hot blast furnaces independently developed in my country, and made positive contributions to improving the blast temperature of my country's blast furnaces.
I met Master Wu Qichang in October 1991, and it has been 30 years since then. At that time, I had just graduated and was assigned to the ironmaking room of Shougang Design Institute to participate in the design of the new technology overhaul and renovation project of Shougang No.4 blast furnace (1200m ³). I needed to investigate the latest technological progress at home and abroad in the design of blast furnace cooling system and cooling wall. In the late 1980 s, the older generation of ironmaking design experts in Beijing Institute, such as Dai Jie and Ma Kuiduo, went to Europe to investigate and exchange the closed circulation cooling technology of blast furnace soft water under the organization of the Ministry of metallurgy. After returning to China, the Beijing Institute took the lead in compiling an investigation report and technical collection of "Blast Furnace Soft Water Closed Circulation Cooling Technology", which introduced in detail the development, research, design and application of blast furnace soft water closed circulation cooling technology in Germany, Belgium, France and other European steel industry developed countries. Beijing Institute took the lead in applying the closed circulation technology of blast furnace soft water to the blast furnaces of TISCO and Benyi Steel. It should be said that Beijing Institute is the pioneer and innovative practitioner of the closed cycle process design of soft water in blast furnace in China.
I clearly remember that Professor Zhang Bopeng, a senior iron-making expert at Shougang at that time, took several designers such as Ni Ping and I to the Beijing Institute for investigation and discussion to exchange and discuss the design and manufacturing technology of the closed circulation cooling of soft water in blast furnace and the third generation double-row tube cast iron cooling wall. At that time, Master Wu Qichang was serving as the director of the ironmaking room of the Beijing Academy. He was in the year of destiny. Due to his long-term design and research work, his hair was gray, wearing black-rimmed glasses, and wearing a dark casual suit. He was gentle, generous and kind. He was not only a gentle elder, but also a knowledgeable expert. At that time, also participating in the exchange and discussion were Professor Tang Wenquan, Deputy Director of the Ironmaking Office of Beijing Institute, Professor Wang Zemu and Chief Engineer Stuart Qin. They are all well-known experts in the blast furnace design industry in China, with rich practical experience in design and broad international vision.
Master Wu Qichang and several other experts from the Beijing Academy gave us a very detailed and unreserved introduction to our exchanges. Many technical details were discussed in depth and specifically, and they gave us specific suggestions on some design points and key links. That exchange and discussion was a great harvest and benefit for us. Although 30 years have passed since this incident, it is still deeply remembered in my mind. The voices and smiles of Master Wu Qichang and several other old experts always appear in front of me. Since then, Master Wu Qichang and I have met many times in ironmaking academic conferences or project reviews, and have maintained close contact, and academic exchanges have never stopped. In the design and research of Shougang's blast furnace coal injection system renovation and Shougang's No.2 blast furnace (1780m ³) adopting domestic copper cooling stave for the first time, Master Wu Qichang was invited to participate in the project research and demonstration many times, contributing wisdom and experience to the successful application of the project.
In February 2005, the Shougang Jingtang Iron and Steel Project was approved by the state to independently design and build my country's first coastal port-to-port new-generation recyclable steel plant in Caofeidian, Bohai Bay. At that time, I was fortunate to be the chief designer of Shougang Jingtang Iron and Steel Project, responsible for the overall design of the steel plant project, and also presided over the engineering design of my country's first 5000m ³ super-large blast furnace. At that time, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Several large metallurgical design institutes across the country participated in the preliminary work of engineering design. In the bidding and bid evaluation stage of engineering design, nationally renowned academicians, masters and experts were invited as bid evaluation members. A large number of well-known domestic experts and scholars, such as academician Wang Guodong of Northeastern University, Master Wu Qichang of China Metallurgical Jingcheng, Professor Yinhan of China Metallurgical South, Professor Kong Lingtan of Beijing University of Science and Technology, and Professor Liu Yuncai of Shougang, were invited as bid evaluation members. At that time, I was the bid reporter for the 5500m blast furnace design project. After the technical bid was finished, several experts such as Master Wu Qichang fully affirmed the design scheme of Shougang Design Institute and highly recognized the design concept, process design, equipment design and design innovation. Master Wu Qichang gave high praise and strong support to the key technological innovations such as the bell-less top, top-burning hot blast furnace, dry bag dust removal process for blast furnace gas, and all domestic copper cooling walls independently designed and developed by Shougang Jingtang 5500m ³ blast furnace. With the strong support of bid evaluation experts, Shougang Design Institute successfully obtained a major historical opportunity for Shougang Jingtang 5500m ³ blast furnace engineering design. Since then, during the design and construction of Shougang Jingtang No.1 5500m ³ blast furnace project, it has also received specific guidance and enthusiastic help from Master Wu Qichang and many ironmaking experts. With the guidance and help of national ironmaking experts, in May 2009, after Shougang Jingtang No. 1 blast furnace was completed and put into operation, the main technical indicators reached or even exceeded the design level. The project design won the National Excellent Engineering Design Gold Award and the National Quality Project Gold Award.
In the design process of China's first 5500m blast furnace, what impressed me most was that the research decision on the design scheme of the hot blast pipeline of the top-burning hot blast stove was once again supported and helped selflessly by Master Wu Qichang and Professor Yinhan. In order to achieve a high air temperature of 1300 ℃ and shorten the length of the hot blast stove main pipe, the four top-fired hot blast stoves equipped in Shougang Jingtang blast furnace adopt the design scheme of asymmetric rectangular process arrangement. The stress conditions of the hot blast branch pipe and the hot blast stove main pipe are extremely complicated, which is different from the traditional one-line internal combustion hot blast stove and the popular Nippon Steel external combustion hot blast stove at home and abroad. At that time, there were 13 giant blast furnaces over 5000m in the world, all of which were externally fired hot blast furnaces. The largest engineering application example of top-burning hot blast stove is 3200m ³ blast furnace. In the absence of practical experience for reference, the difficulty of its design can be imagined. Around the connection and arrangement of hot air furnace branch pipe and hot air main pipe, the comparative analysis and numerical simulation of multiple schemes were carried out. At that time, different technical views and design ideas were at odds and controversial. When this technical problem was submitted to me, I thought about it for a long time and it was difficult to make a decision for a while, so I thought of jointly solving this engineering problem by inviting authoritative experts in the industry to participate in reviewing the design scheme. In order to fully discuss and communicate in depth, we specially chose a weekend in October 2005 and invited Master Wu Qichang, an authoritative expert in China's ironmaking design industry, and Professor Yinhan of China Metallurgical South to hold a design scheme seminar at Shougang Design Institute on Saturday and Sunday. The discussion at the seminar can be said to be diverse and extremely enthusiastic. The technical views of experts and technicians from production units, construction units and design units are different or even very different. Experts and technicians from several parties hold their own opinions and hold each other.
At the seminar, Master Wu Qichang was calm, calm and earnest. He patiently asked about some design details and key design parameters. In view of the design scheme, he combined with his successful experience in presiding over the design scheme of revamping the hot blast pipeline of Baosteel No.1 blast furnace, we analyzed the stress mechanism of hot blast stove pipeline, thermal-mechanical coupling and dynamic condition change under loading condition, thermal expansion thermal stress, elastic-plastic stress and strain of pipeline under high pressure condition, blind plate force and pipeline restraint mechanism in detail, including how to scientifically and reasonably set up fixed pipeline bracket, sliding pipeline bracket, corrugated compensator pull rod, hanging and fixing method of hot blast stove ring pipe, etc, very critical and valuable recommendations were made for the overall technical programme. Professor Yinhan puts forward extremely important and key technical suggestions in combination with the connection structure between the hot air branch pipe and the hot air stove of WISCO's internal combustion hot air stove, the design details of the corrugated compensator at the end of the hot air main pipe, how to overcome the axial and radial displacement of the hot air main pipe, and how to reasonably design the bricklaying structure inside the hot air branch pipe and the corrugated compensator. The two senior teachers have contributed wisdom, knowledge and experience to the scientific and reasonable design of Shougang Jingtang blast furnace top-fired hot blast furnace system. It can be said that Shougang Jingtang blast furnace project was successfully completed and put into operation and successfully operated, and they also have their contributions and contributions!
At that time, Master Wu Qichang and Professor Yinhan were two old seniors in their seventies. They were well-known experts in the national ironmaking design industry. From morning to night for two days, the two experts always insisted on participating in the meeting and actively making suggestions. There is nothing to say and say. It can be said that they are "hand-in-hand" to guide and teach, which can be described as unreserved and helpful. We are sincerely admired and moved by their noble academic morality, lofty dedication, selfless guidance and help, and profound knowledge and attainments. Their patriotic, dedicated, rigorous, realistic and innovative demeanor and selfless character still inspire me and inspire me from time to time. They are my lifelong academic mentors and life models!
For a long time, Master Wu Qichang has always been concerned about my growth, guiding my academic research and encouraging my academic progress. He has repeatedly offered to recommend me to participate in the selection of national engineering survey and design masters, which can be said to be a support and care for my younger generation. In 2016, under the nomination and recommendation of five national engineering design masters, Wu Qichang, Xiang Zhongyong, Li Longzhen, Han Guorui and Pan Guoyou, I was successfully elected as the eighth batch of national engineering survey and design masters. The senior teachers nominated and recommended for me were some of the leading academics and some of the main leaders of other units. Although the engineering design market was highly competitive at that time, and different design units were competitors in the market, they abandoned the "portal concept", selflessness, followed academic supremacy, and vigorously recommended talents. Today, I also learn from the demeanor and virtuous deeds of my predecessors, nominate, recommend, guide and support leading talents in the metallurgical engineering design industry, and help them select national engineering survey and design masters.
The people have gone, and the bones of the wind are still there. Recall several important past events of my academic exchanges with Master Wu Qichan and put them in writing to commemorate our predecessors! Thank you for your guidance and instruction, thank you for your help and help. May Mr. in the academic paradise, calm and peaceful!
Master Wu Qichong through the ages!