Suppression of Swirl Motion of a Bottom Blown Bath using a Circular Disk

Abstract

A swirl motion of a bubbling jet is induced in a cylindrical reactor under a certain gas injection condition. Mixing in the bath is highly enhanced in the presence of the swirl motion, whereas the swirl motion itself sometimes causes severe oscillation of the reactor and slopping of the molten metal contained in the reactor. A simple method of suppressing the swirl motion was proposed in this water model study. A circular disk in contact with the bath surface was found to successfully suppress the swirl motion for the disk diameter greater than a certain critical value. Empirical equations were derived for the critical disk diameter.