Mathematical Modeling of Nitrogen Removal from the Vacuum Tank Degasser

Abstract

The removal of nitrogen from an industrial vacuum tank degasser depends on a series of operational parameters, steel composition, and contents of surface‐active elements in liquid steel, e.g., oxygen and sulfur. The effect of some specific elements on nitrogen removal in the vacuum degasser has been (well) examined. Still, it is quite challenging to assess the overall effect of the whole steel composition on the process. The focus of the present work was to predict nitrogen removal from the vacuum degasser specially taking into account the multi‐component effect of steel composition. An integrated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for simulating nitrogen (and hydrogen) removal in industrial vacuum tank degassers was therefore developed based on theories and methods that are relatively separate in the literature. In order to include the multi‐component effect, the model is coupled with an in‐house thermodynamics code that can be used to determine the activity coefficient of nitrogen, oxygen, or sulfur as a function of steel composition and temperature. The code was verified by comparing the calculated activity coefficients against experimental measurements from various sources. Efforts were also put into developing an on‐line use concept to control the nitrogen removal. The gas plume, flow field, and evolutions of nitrogen and hydrogen during vacuum treatment were predicted and the on‐line concept was demonstrated by presenting two operating diagrams. The results showed that the final nitrogen content decreases with an increase in the chemical reaction rate constant and a decrease in the initial nitrogen content. By contrary, the final nitrogen content increases with a decrease in the chemical reaction rate constant and an increase in the initial nitrogen content. Finally, the operating diagrams were validated by industrial data and observations.