Numerical simulation study of the effect of nonlinear side blowing on the flow of gas-liquid two-phase flow

Abstract

Abstract The hydrodynamic and stirring characteristics of gas-slag-copper matte three-phase in side-blowing melt pool melting were numerically simulated using a combination of the volume of fluid (VOF) model in computational fluid dynamics and the realizable k-ε turbulence model. The study obtained macroscopic flow and gas-liquid two-phase distribution information of the flow field in the melting process. It also examined the effects of isokinetic blowing and nonlinear blowing on the fluid velocity, penetration depth, gas content, and turbulent eddy volume of the flow field, and compared the results. The results indicate that, for the same total gas volume, constant velocity blowing (CVS) inadequately agitates the molten pool, resulting in a large stirring dead zone within the flow field. In contrast, nonlinear blowing enhances the fluid velocity overall. Specifically, sinusoidal variable speed blowing (SWS) and rectangular variable speed blowing (RWS) reduce the stirring dead zone area by 79 and 73.5 %, respectively. This is attributed to the increase in maximum penetration depth and slag phase gas content, as well as the decrease in gas escape during nonlinear blowing. The vortex volume over the total calculated time for the three conditions is enhanced by 6.7 and 1.1 % for SWS and RWS, respectively. Additionally, the turbulent kinetic energy of the fluids is increased by 18.7 and 17 %, respectively.