Slag Foaming in an Electric Arc Furnace

Abstract

Slag foaming in an electric arc furnace (EAF) is examined using a mathematical model of the EAF to compute the CO generation rate and slag chemistry and laboratory measurements of the foam index. The foam height limited by either the foam stability or from the amount of slag present was computed for a high productivity furnace using relatively large amounts of pig iron, carbon and oxygen. It was found that for this case the foam is usually simply limited by the amount of slag in the furnace. The effects of the amounts of pig iron, carbon, oxygen and slag were determined. As the amount of carbon as pig iron, coke and coal and oxygen are reduced, the foam height is limited by the CO generation rate and is reduced. The foam decreases towards the end of the process due to lower CO generation rates.