Water modelling study of fluid flow and mixing characteristics in bath during AOD process

Abstract

The fluid flow and mixing characteristics in the bath during the argon–oxygen decarburisation (AOD) process have been investigated on a water model of an 18 t AOD vessel blown through two annular tube type lances of constant cross-sectional area. The geometric similarity ratio between the model and its prototype (including the lances) was 1 : 3. Based on theoretical calculations of the parameters of the gas streams in the lances, the gas blowing rates used for the model were determined fairly precisely. Thus, sufficiently full kinematic similarity between the model and its prototype was ensured. The influence of the gas flowrate and the angle included between the two lances was examined. The results demonstrated that the liquid in the bath underwent vigorous circulatory motion during blowing, and there was no obvious dead zone in the bath, resulting in excellent mixing and a short mixing time. The gas flowrates, particularly that of the main lance, had a key influence on these characteristics. However, the gas jet of the sublance had a physical shielding effect on the gas jet of the main lance, and mixing efficiency could be improved by a suitable increase in the gas blowing rate of the sublance. The angular separation of the two lances also had a marked influence on the flow and mixing in the bath. An excessively large or small separation of the two lances would reduce the stability of blowing and would also be unfavourable to mixing. The optimum range of separation is 60–100° under the conditions of the present work. The relationships between the mixing time and the gas blowing rate, the stirring energy, the modified Froude numbers for the main lance and sublance, the lance arrangement, etc. have been obtained.