Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial Ladle
In secondary metallurgy, argon gas stirring and alloying of elements are very important in determining the quality of steel. Argon gas is injected through the nozzle located at the bottom of the ladle into the molten steel bath; this gas breaks up into gas bubbles, rising upwards and breaking the sl...
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doaj-208e50080174478ca3ff760867af4dde2020-11-25T01:56:32ZengMDPI AGMetals2075-47012019-07-019882910.3390/met9080829met9080829Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial LadleEshwar Kumar Ramasetti0Ville-Valtteri Visuri1Petri Sulasalmi2Timo Fabritius3Tommi Saatio4Mingming Li5Lei Shao6Process Metallurgy Research Unit, University of Oulu, PO Box 4300, 90014 Oulu, FinlandProcess Metallurgy Research Unit, University of Oulu, PO Box 4300, 90014 Oulu, FinlandProcess Metallurgy Research Unit, University of Oulu, PO Box 4300, 90014 Oulu, FinlandProcess Metallurgy Research Unit, University of Oulu, PO Box 4300, 90014 Oulu, FinlandOutokumpu Stainless Oy, Terästie, 95490 Tornio, FinlandSchool of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Heping District, Shenyang 11004, ChinaSchool of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Heping District, Shenyang 11004, ChinaIn secondary metallurgy, argon gas stirring and alloying of elements are very important in determining the quality of steel. Argon gas is injected through the nozzle located at the bottom of the ladle into the molten steel bath; this gas breaks up into gas bubbles, rising upwards and breaking the slag layer at high gas flow rates, creating an open-eye. Alloy elements are added to the molten steel through the open-eye to attain the desired steel composition. In this work, experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of argon gas flow rate on the open-eye size and mixing time. An Eulerian volume of fluid (VOF) approach was employed to simulate the argon/steel/slag interface in the ladle, while a species transport model was used to calculate the mixing time of the nickel alloy. The simulation results showed that the time-averaged value of the open-eye area changed from 0.66 to 2.36 m<sup>2</sup> when the flow rate of argon was varied from 100 to 500 NL/min. The mixing time (95% criterion) of tracer addition into the metal bath decreased from 139 s to 96 s, when the argon flow rate was increased from 100 to 500 NL/min. The model validation was verified by comparing with measured experimental results.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/9/8/829ladle metallurgyCFDopen-eyemixing time |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Eshwar Kumar Ramasetti Ville-Valtteri Visuri Petri Sulasalmi Timo Fabritius Tommi Saatio Mingming Li Lei Shao |
spellingShingle |
Eshwar Kumar Ramasetti Ville-Valtteri Visuri Petri Sulasalmi Timo Fabritius Tommi Saatio Mingming Li Lei Shao Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial Ladle Metals ladle metallurgy CFD open-eye mixing time |
author_facet |
Eshwar Kumar Ramasetti Ville-Valtteri Visuri Petri Sulasalmi Timo Fabritius Tommi Saatio Mingming Li Lei Shao |
author_sort |
Eshwar Kumar Ramasetti |
title |
Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial Ladle |
title_short |
Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial Ladle |
title_full |
Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial Ladle |
title_fullStr |
Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial Ladle |
title_full_unstemmed |
Numerical Modeling of Open-Eye Formation and Mixing Time in Argon Stirred Industrial Ladle |
title_sort |
numerical modeling of open-eye formation and mixing time in argon stirred industrial ladle |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Metals |
issn |
2075-4701 |
publishDate |
2019-07-01 |
description |
In secondary metallurgy, argon gas stirring and alloying of elements are very important in determining the quality of steel. Argon gas is injected through the nozzle located at the bottom of the ladle into the molten steel bath; this gas breaks up into gas bubbles, rising upwards and breaking the slag layer at high gas flow rates, creating an open-eye. Alloy elements are added to the molten steel through the open-eye to attain the desired steel composition. In this work, experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of argon gas flow rate on the open-eye size and mixing time. An Eulerian volume of fluid (VOF) approach was employed to simulate the argon/steel/slag interface in the ladle, while a species transport model was used to calculate the mixing time of the nickel alloy. The simulation results showed that the time-averaged value of the open-eye area changed from 0.66 to 2.36 m<sup>2</sup> when the flow rate of argon was varied from 100 to 500 NL/min. The mixing time (95% criterion) of tracer addition into the metal bath decreased from 139 s to 96 s, when the argon flow rate was increased from 100 to 500 NL/min. The model validation was verified by comparing with measured experimental results. |
topic |
ladle metallurgy CFD open-eye mixing time |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/9/8/829 |
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