CREATIVE HERITAGE OF VALENTIN PAVLOVICH TSYMBAL

On February 14, 2021, at the age of 87, Valentin Pavlovich Tsymbal, professor-consultant of the Department of Applied Information Technologies and Programming, Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, full member of the International Academy of Sciences of Higher Education, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honorary Professor of Kuzbass, passed away. Valentin Pavlovich was an outstanding scientist of Russia and the former USSR, the pride of our university, had enormous authority among colleagues, and enjoyed deep respect from the scientific community. Valentin Pavlovich was distinguished by amazing wisdom and kindness, broad erudition, deep decency, spiritual generosity, a positive attitude and inexhaustible optimism. He made an invaluable contribution to the development of metallurgy, became one of the founders of the use of mathematical modeling methods, as well as the theory of self-organization in improving existing and creating new metallurgical processes and units. He always believed that the purpose and duty of a scientist is to pass on the baton of knowledge to the next generations. The scientific concepts and achievements of Valentin Pavlovich and his numerous students formed the basis for the creation of the scientific school "Mathematical modeling, creation of applied instrumental systems and new metallurgical processes and units based on the principles of self-organization." 

Valentin Pavlovich Tsymbal was born in Kazakhstan in the city of Karaganda on August 2, 1933. In 1943, Valentin Pavlovich's family moved to the city of Temirtau, where he graduated from school in 1951. Valentin Pavlovich entered the Siberian Metallurgical Institute, metallurgical faculty (specializing in "Metallurgy of ferrous metals") in the city of Stalinsk (now Novokuznetsk). In 1956, he graduated with honors from the institute and was assigned to the Kazakh Metallurgical Plant in the city of Temirtau, where his parents lived. He worked at this plant for four years, worked as an assistant foreman, steelmaker, shift supervisor, and received a good school of production relations and knowledge of real metallurgy. In 1960, he entered graduate school at the SMI in the newly organized department of "Automation of metallurgical production", in 1963, under the supervision of Professor P.M. Maslovsky, he defended his candidate's dissertation on the topic of "Modeling the process of steel decarburization in an open-hearth furnace on electronic mathematical machines", and in 1973 - a doctoral dissertation on the topic of "Research and control of the steelmaking process using mathematical models on the examples of conventional and intensive smelting." In 1996, V.P. Tsymbal was elected a corresponding member of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School, and in 1997 - a full member of the International Academy of Sciences of the Higher School. In 1996, he was awarded the honorary title of "Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation", and in 2006 - the title of "Honorary Professor of Kuzbass". Valentin Pavlovich's multifaceted activities have been duly recognized with high awards. He was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, medals "For Valiant Labor", "For Labor Distinction", "For Special Contribution to the Development of Kuzbass" of the 3rd degree, "70 Years of the Kemerovo Region", "For Faith and Goodness", "For Service to Kuzbass" and others. But most importantly, V.P. Tsymbal earned the deep respect of his numerous students and colleagues. Valentin Pavlovich founded the Department of Mathematical Support and Computers in Metallurgy on December 16, 1980, which was later renamed the Department of Information Technologies in Metallurgy (ITM), became the first head of this department and headed it for more than 30 years until 2012. In May 2015, the Department of Information Technologies in Metallurgy, as a result of merging with the Department of Computer Science and Control Systems, became the Department of Applied Information Technologies and Programming (PITiP), where Valentin Pavlovich worked as a professor-consultant.
The main teaching staff of the department in the period 1980-1986: Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor V.P. Tsymbal; Candidates of Technical Sciences, Associate Professors V.N. Buintsev, A.F. Sakun, A.G. Padalko, S.P. Mochalov, N.A. Kalinogorsky, S.N. Kalashnikov, G.B. Melnik, S.A. Shipilov, E.I. Liverts.
Since 1986, the teaching staff of the department began to expand due to its graduates: I.A. Rybenko, S.Yu. Krasnoperov, V.I. Kozhemyachenko, L.A. Ermakova, V. Yu. Klimov, M. B. Malinov, M. M. Milovanov, I. A. Kuksov, A. E. Shendrikov, P. A. Sechenov and others. Most of them defended their candidate dissertations and made a significant contribution to the work of the department and the university.

The ITM Department headed by Valentin Pavlovich was the first in the country to begin training specialists with a broad profile and fundamental training in the field of metallurgy, information technology, programming, mathematical modeling, scientific research and optimization. Since 1981, the department has been training engineers in the specialization of "Mathematical support and application of computers in metallurgy" within the specialty of "Metallurgy of ferrous metals", and since 1999 - in the specialty of "Information systems and technologies". In 2009, the first student intake was made for the new specialty "Software for computing equipment and automated systems", which then became the training direction "Informatics and computing equipment". On the initiative of V.P. Tsymbal, a master's degree program in the specialty "Metallurgy of ferrous metals" was opened for the first time in Kuzbass. Many graduates of the ITM Department successfully work in various cities of Russia and abroad (USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Czech Republic, etc.). The main scientific direction of the department's activity since 1980 has been "Mathematical description and optimization of metallurgical processes, development of automated research and training systems and instrumental modeling systems", headed by Valentin Pavlovich Tsymbal. Within the framework of this direction, more than 30 state-budgeted and contractual research and development works have been completed, more than 20 objects of technology and technology have been introduced into production and the educational process, including 15 training complexes, an automated system for adjusting thermal and technological modes for KMK open-hearth furnaces, a system for optimizing the blowdown of converter melting for ZSMK, software products for computers in the form of training systems (such as "Converter", "Open-hearth furnace steelmaker", "DSP steelmaker", "Agglomerator", etc.). Since 1995, the department has been developing a new scientific direction, "Models and Mechanisms of Self-Organization", and then the scientific school "Mathematical Modeling, Creation of Applied Instrumental Systems and New Metallurgical Processes and Units Based on the Principles of Self-Organization" was created, headed by Valentin Pavlovich. Within the framework of the scientific school, an effectively working team of scientists and teachers was formed at the Department of PITiP: I.A. Rybenko, V.N. Buintsev, V.I. Kozhemyachenko, S.N. Kalashnikov, L.A. Ermakova, A.A. Olennikov, P.A. Sechenov, as well as graduate students E.A. Martusevich and D.Yu. Belaventseva.

Under the supervision of Valentin Pavlovich, the scientists of the department were the first in the world metallurgy to create a concept and a set of models of a fundamentally new metallurgical process and a jet-emulsion type (JET) unit based on the principles of synergetics and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The most important of the proposed and constructively implemented principles and solutions are: creation of a highly dispersed gas suspension, organization of forced movement of a two-phase medium in a closed volume under pressure. This made it possible to create dynamic dissipative structures that play the role of unique localized chambers. The central role of the inducer of movement of the two-phase medium is performed by a reactor-oscillator with gas-dynamic channel locking, which allows pushing the two-phase medium through a vertical column reactor and other devices of the JET unit. The advantages of the new process and the JET type unit are: high speeds of heat and mass transfer processes (100 - 200 times higher than in the converter); small size and material intensity of the units (10-20 times less than in traditional metallurgy); low through energy consumption (13-15 GJ/t); high environmental friendliness and waste-free technology, use of various types of dusty materials and waste in the charge; controllability, versatility, mobility; the possibility of smelting various metals; the possibility of implementing a new concept for creating mini-plants and structural changes in metallurgy. The process and the unit are patented in most metal-producing countries of the world.
The new continuous metallurgical process and unit are implemented as a large-scale pilot plant in converter shop No. 2 of JSC West Siberian Metallurgical Plant.

A major role in the implementation of this installation was played by the professor of the ITM department S.P. Mochalov, the heads of the plant B.N. Kustov and R.S. Aizatullov, the chief steelmaker V.V. Sokolov and a whole group of specialists. In total, more than 50 people participated in the creation of the installation and the experiments. From 1992 to 2001, 40 series of experiments were conducted on this installation, which made it possible to confirm the correctness of the theoretical and design solutions and improve the design of the installation. Several new low-energy technologies have been developed and experimentally tested, including direct reduction of dust-like ores and waste (sludge, oiled scale) without agglomeration, production of manganese alloys from lean dust-like ores, separation of titanium-magnetite concentrates into iron and conditioned titanium slag, direct reduction of metals with simultaneous production of synthesis gas (smokeless technology). Mathematical modeling and research conducted by scientists of the department have shown that the developed process and unit have a certain degree of universality: it is possible to process dust-like materials with a wide range of chemical composition changes, including lean dust-like ores and enrichment tailings, by changing the blowing mode and the degree of afterburning of the reducing fuel. Based on the SER process, a creative team of scientists and plant specialists under the leadership of Valentin Pavlovich developed a number of resource-saving technologies: obtaining metal from cast iron and scale; direct reduction of metal from dusty iron-containing materials; obtaining manganese alloys; processing of titanium-magnetite concentrates; direct reduction of iron with the associated production of high-calorie synthesis gas and aluminosilicate microspheres.

The SER type unit can be used as a gasifier of dust fractions of coal, but the most economical option is the one using a mixture of coal and dust-like iron-containing waste. This simplifies the process of maintaining a stable layer of slag-metal emulsion, inside which the fuel is burned, and also reduces the consumption of gaseous oxygen due to the use of oxygen from iron oxides. In addition, it becomes possible to use excess temperature in the case when the priority task is coal gasification with the production of synthesis gas. Thus, this technology is waste-free and smokeless in the fullest sense. The project "Technology for processing dust-like coal and metallurgical waste based on the SER jet-emulsion unit" developed within the framework of the scientific school was presented in the program "Russian-German scientific dialogue" at the international Congress "Berlin Science Week" in Berlin.

The new process and unit of the SER made it possible to set the task of changing the traditional structure of metallurgical plants, since in this case agglomeration, coke-chemical, and blast furnace production are eliminated. Instead of a sequence of large units, the operability and change of productivity of which is difficult to ensure under changing market conditions, an enterprise of the new structure can consist of a set of independently operating modules.

The creative team of the scientific school under the guidance of Valentin Pavlovich created a complex of mathematical models and software and tool systems applicable to various technological problems: a software and tool system that allows calculating the technological parameters of a new continuous metallurgical process in conjunction with the main design parameters of the unit, which creates the basis for automating the design of newly created units; a complex of mathematical models describing the relationship between flow parameters and physicochemical processes in a jet-emulsion type unit, presented as a current equilibrium reactor; the "Engineering-Metallurgy" tool system, which is an interconnected system of mathematical models, optimization methods and databases, implemented as a program complex applicable to solving a wide range of optimization problems for a number of metallurgical technologies; an instrumental system for calculating energy-technological complexes; a software package implementing a simulation model of a column jet-emulsion reactor; a software and tool system implementing a set of models of the relationship between design and operating parameters to determine the effective operating mode of a gravity separator and the possibility of separating the separation products; a mathematical model and software implementation of the process of melting spherical particles using NVIDIA CUDA parallel programming technology; a software and tool system that allows calculating the enthalpy, entropy and heat capacity of both substances and materials in a temperature range; an instrumental system for modeling boundary value problems of heat and mass transfer based on the development of Excel-VBA software applications; models of mass transfer processes in dispersed particles; a set of mathematical models and an automated system for designing slag cooling of metallurgical units; a mathematical model of the technological process of forming aluminum alloys and the automated information and training system "Alyuminshchik"; a software product for calculating options for secondary energy use systems; automated laboratory setup with microprocessor control and SCADA system for studying the principles of control of processes with synergetic properties. Valentin Pavlovich personally and in co-authorship published 9 textbooks and teaching aids, including 3 electronic, more than 400 scientific articles in Russian and foreign journals, in the materials of scientific conferences, congresses and symposia of various levels, received more than 40 author's certificates and patents. In 2014, under his editorship, a unique collective monograph was published in the central publishing house "Metallurgizdat", which summarized 25 years of work of the creative team on the creation of a new metallurgical process and unit. Currently, the latest work of Valentin Pavlovich is being prepared for publication - the monograph "Synergetic concept of creating mathematical models of low-energy technological processes using metallurgy as examples" in co-authorship with I.A. Rybenko and P.A. Sechenov.

Valentin Pavlovich was a great scientist and metallurgist, a remarkable person. He made a huge contribution to the development of the department, the university, the city and our country. He passed away, but his memory remained in his deeds, the richest scientific heritage, numerous students! Bright memories of him will remain in our hearts for many years!