Abstract
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of steel flow in an Rheinsahl–Heraeus (RH) process are realized by a discrete phase model (DPM) for the driving bubble plumes, a volume of fluid (VoF) method for the free surface in the vacuum chamber (VC), and a large eddy simulations (LES) model for the transport and mixing of steel alloys. CFD simulations are opposed to particle image velocimetry (PIV) analyses of flow pattern at the bath surface in the VC. While simple Reynolds averaged turbulence models fail to reproduce these plant observations, LES agrees fairly well. Furthermore, the steel recirculation rate is compared with empirical correlations from the literature, yielding good agreement with respect to the dependency of the recirculation rate on the gas injection rate. The absolute value of the recirculation rate increases by 15%, in case (realistic) eroded edges are considered instead of a (unrealistic) sharp‐edged geometry. Data‐assisted recurrence CFD (rCFD) is applied to accelerate conventional CFD. The rCFD simulations yield a computational speed‐up of four orders of magnitude, enabling real‐time LES at full grid resolution of three million cells. Titanium homogenization in the steel ladle is addressed by means of rCFD and compared with corresponding plant trials yielding good agreement.
Highlights
Heraeus (RH) process are realized by a discrete phase model (DPM) for the driving bubble plumes, a volume of fluid (VoF) method for the free surface in the vacuum chamber (VC), and a large eddy simulations (LES) model for the transport and mixing of steel alloys
We investigated the dynamic interaction of bubble plumes with a free bath surface by considering sloshing in a spring mounted vessel.[22]
In the vacuum treatment plant of voestalpine Linz, a video camera is installed in the VC, which enables a visual observation of a restricted portion of the bath surface (Figure 3b,c)
Summary
Heraeus (RH) process are realized by a discrete phase model (DPM) for the driving bubble plumes, a volume of fluid (VoF) method for the free surface in the vacuum chamber (VC), and a large eddy simulations (LES) model for the transport and mixing of steel alloys. Nozzles to drive a global recirculating flow pattern (Figure 1). After passing the VC, refined steel flows back to the ladle through the down-leg. The steel recirculation rate is compared with empirical correlations from the literature, yielding good agreement with respect to the dependency of the recirculation rate on the gas injection rate. The absolute value of the recirculation rate increases by 15%, in case into the VC, which subsequently homogenize in the steel ladle by the global steel recirculation flow. In estimating the recirculation rate, researchers commonly rely on experiments of global alloy dissolution or semianalytical considerations. Cal correlations for the recirculation rate have been proposed.[1,2,3,4] Most of them include the influence of the main geometrical features of the plant as well as the gas
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