Understanding Characteristic of Abrasion of Refractory Lining Caused by Bath Oscillation in BOF Steelmaking

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of the refractory abrasion occurring widely inside basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking. The mechanism of refractory abrasion is examined numerically referring to the bath oscillation with regard to flows, turbulence and wall shear stress inside a BOF. The simulation results reveal that the refractory abrasion tends to occur on the wall region between the slag/atmosphere and slag/metal interfaces due to the oscillation of the bath in the blowing process, which generally promotes slag-line erosion. The decreased nozzle angle, and either increased lance height or operation pressure can lead to more serious refractory erosion that occurs more likely during the slag-making period in the operation of BOF.