Modeling of droplet generation in a top blowing steelmaking process

Quantification of metal droplets ejected due to impinging gas jet on the surface of liquid metal is an important parameter for the understanding and for the modeling of the refining kinetics of reactions in slag-metal emulsion zone. In the present work, a numerical study has been carried out to critically examine the applicability of droplet generation rate correlation previously proposed by Subagyo et al. on the basis of dimensionless blowing number (N B). The blowing number was re-evaluated at the impingement point of jet with taking into account the temperature effect of change in density and velocity of the gas jet. The result obtained from the work shows that the modified blowing number N B,T at the furnace temperature of 1873 K (1600 °C) is approximately double in magnitude compared to N B calculated by Subagyo and co-workers. When N B,T has been employed to the Subagyo’s empirical correlation for droplet generation, a wide mismatch is observed between the experimental data obtained from cold model and hot model experiments. The reason for this large deviation has been investigated in the current study, and a theoretical approach to estimate the droplet generation rate has been proposed. The suitability of the proposed model has been tested by numerically calculating the amount of metals in slag. The study shows that the weight of metals in emulsion falls in the range of 0 to 21 wt pct of hot metal weight when droplet generation rate has been calculated at ambient furnace temperature of 1873 K (1600 °C)

Dynamic model of basic oxygen steelmaking process based on multi-zone reaction kinetics : model derivation and validation

A multi-zone kinetic model coupled with a dynamic slag generation model was developed for the simulation of hot metal and slag composition during the BOF operation. The three reaction zones, (i) jet impact zone (ii) slag-bulk metal zone (iii) slag-metal-gas emulsion zone were considered for the calculation of overall refining kinetics. In the rate equations, the transient rate parameters were mathematically described as a function of process variables. A micro and macroscopic rate calculation methodology (micro-kinetics and macro-kinetics) were developed to estimate the total refining contributed by the recirculating metal droplets through the slag-metal emulsion zone. The micro-kinetics involves developing the rate equation for individual droplets in the emulsion. The mathematical models for the size distribution of initial droplets, kinetics of simultaneous refining of elements, the residence time in the emulsion, dynamic interfacial area change were established in the micro-kinetic model. In the macro-kinetics calculation, a droplet generation model was employed and the total amount of refining by emulsion was calculated by summing the refining from the entire population of returning droplets. A dynamic FetO generation model based on oxygen mass balance was developed and coupled with the multi-zone kinetic model. The effect of post combustion on the evolution of slag and metal composition was investigated. The model was applied to a 200-ton top blowing converter and the simulated value of metal and slag was found to be in good agreement with the measured data. The post-combustion ratio was found to be an important factor in controlling FetO content in the slag and the kinetics of Mn and P in a BOF process