Abstract
A smooth iron-slag separation during ironmaking process is necessary for the steel refining process, even in case of “Zero Carbon Ironmaking”. For a fundamental comprehension of the effect of the physical properties of the melts on the iron-slag separation behaviour, a numerical approach with a practical multi-interfacial smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation for the tracking of the iron-slag separation behaviour is undertaken in this study.
Experimental values for iron-slag separation conditions from a previous work and estimated physical properties from literature were used for the numerical analysis. The CLS-SPH method was able to reproduce the iron-slag separation behaviour where iron aggregated in a unitary sphere and the slag discharged onto the iron surface. A less viscous slag may reduce the negative impact on the separation. A slag with a high surface tension enables the slags to agglomerate and decreases the number of elements that may disturb the iron agglomeration. A highly dense slag has a strong influence on the variation of the iron-slag interface due to a larger momentum. The interfacial tension showed no obvious effect on the separation behaviour in the range of experimental values considered in this study.
Temporal changes in three-dimensional distributions of the liquid iron (grey colour) and molten slag (black colour) as per the model calculation.
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