Dian-Qiao Geng

Simulation on Decarburization and Inclusion Removal Process in the Ruhrstahl–Heraeus (RH) Process with Ladle Bottom Blowing

To enhance the refining efficiency of the Ruhrstahl–Heraeus (RH) process, the ladle bottom blowing was employed in RH degasser and a numerical method was employed to investigate the decarburization and inclusion removal in RH with ladle bottom blowing. The results showed that the decarburization rate in RH with ladle bottom blowing is greater than that in traditional RH. The larger mass fraction of carbon at the recirculation zone under up snorkel disappears because of the gas bubbles from ladle bottom blowing in an RH degasser. For RH with ladle bottom blowing, the decarburization at argon bubble surface accounts for the majority of the removed carbon, and it is approximately two times greater than that in the inner site of the vacuum chamber. Besides, the inclusion removal rate in RH with ladle bottom blowing is greater than that in traditional RH, and the maximum inclusion characteristic radius is much less in RH with ladle bottom blowing than that in traditional RH. Besides, the accumulation of inclusions in ladle between sidewall and up snorkel and the recirculation zone under up snorkel, which can be found in traditional RH, disappears in RH with ladle bottom blowing. For RH with ladle bottom blowing, the average number density of inclusions decreases more drastically than that in traditional RH and the average terminal number density of inclusions is much smaller than that in traditional RH.

Simulation on flow field and mixing phenomenon in RH degasser with ladle bottom blowing

Abstract A numerical method has been employed to investigate the flow field and mixing characteristic in the Rheinsahl–Heraeus (RH) degasser with side–bottom blowing. The numerical results showed that stream flows in the up snorkel, the vacuum chamber, the down snorkel and the ladle form a large rectangular circulation zone in the RH degasser with side–bottom blowing, which can enhance the circulation flow rate effectively. For an RH with side–bottom blowing, when the included angle of the line between bottom blowing location and ladle centre and the line between two snorkels is zero, the circulation flow rate increases initially with increasing dimensionless distance between the bottom blowing location and the ladle centre and then decreases, while the mixing time increases with increasing dimensionless distance. On the other hand, when the dimensionless distance is 0·2, both the circulation flow rate and the mixing time decrease with the increasing included angle initially, reach their minimum value and then increase. The optimum values for the dimensionless distance and the included angle to achieve large circulation flow rate and small mixing time are 0·2 and π/4 in the present work.