2017 Volume 57 Issue 7 Pages 1205-1212
A transient 2D axisymmetry mathematical model is established to study the effect of the metal droplets on the electromagnetic field, fluid flow and temperature field. The electromagnetic field is solved with the electric potential method. The movement of droplet and phase boundary is tracked by the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model. The solidification is addressed by the enthalpy-porosity model. The governing equations are discretized based on the finite volume method and solved simultaneously using the commercial software FLUENT. The simulation results indicate that the falling process of droplet can be represented more exactly considering the effect of metal droplets on electromagnetic field. Otherwise the droplets can bridge between electrode and metal pool. The temperature and final velocity of the droplet passing through the slag/pool interface is 1992 K and 0.40 m/s when the effect of metal droplets on electromagnetic field is considered. On the other hand, that is 2019 K and 0.34 m/s correspondingly for the case ignoring the effect of metal droplets on electromagnetic field. Furthermore, the liquidus and solidus depth of the case ignoring the effects of metal droplets on electromagnetic field increases by 18% and 15% compared with that of the other case, respectively.
