Prediction of Multiphase Flow in Ruhrstahl–Heraeus (RH) Reactor

TL;DR

This paper studies the flow of splashed droplets in a Ruhrstahl–Heraeus reactor to improve understanding of decarburization and degassing processes.

Contribution

A new Euler–Euler model is proposed to simulate the behavior of splashed droplets in the vacuum chamber of an RH reactor.

Findings

The Euler–Euler model accurately predicts the flow field compared to experimental data.

Higher gas volume fractions are observed near the up-snorkel wall.

The vortex center is closer to the upward stream in the vacuum chamber.

Abstract

Splashed droplets in the vacuum chamber play an important role in decarburization and degassing in Ruhrstahl–Heraeus (RH), but the scholars do not pay attention to the behaviors of splashed droplets. Thus, it is necessary to propose a new method to investigate the splashed droplets. A Euler–Euler model and the inter-phase momentum transfer are applied to investigate the interaction between the molten steel and the bubbles, and the gas domain in the vacuum chamber is included in the computational domain in order to describe the movement of the splashed droplets. Numerical results show that the flow field predicted by Euler–Euler model agrees well with the experimental data. There is a higher gas volume fraction near the up-snorkel wall, the “fountain” formed by the upward flow from the up-snorkel exceeds 0.1 m above the free surface, and the center of the vortex between the upward stream and the downward stream is closer to the upward stream in the vacuum chamber.

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