Cold Model Study of Mixing and Mass Transfer in LBE Process of Steel-making

Abstract

Experiments have been conducted to determine the mixing time and mass transfer rates between slag and metal in an LBE model. Complete mixing time of water has been determined by 2 methods-conductimetric and chemical decolourisation. The mixing time in LBE process under all experimental conditions was found to be higher than that in top-blowing model. It has been shown that the amount of bottom gas does not have much effect on mixing time. On the other hand, mixing time decreases as the number of porous plugs increases. Volumetric mass transfer coefficient (K_Ba) for LBE was found to be higher than that for top-blowing and bottom-blowing processes. The K_Ba value was found to decrease with increasing gas flow rate and tends to plateau after a certain value of gas flow rate is reached. Mixing and mass transfer results have been explained on the basis of overall turbulence intensity. The model results have been compared with industrial data.