Effect of Gas Blown Modes on Mixing Phenomena in a Bottom Stirring Ladle with Dual Plugs

抄録

Gas stirring plays a significant role in steelmaking process. The stirring effect is often assessed by the mixing time. In the past, the effects of many factors such as the number and position and relative angle of porous plugs in a ladle, as well as gas flowrate on the mixing time have been studied and some beneficial results used in industrial practice. However, for a ladle with dual plugs, the researches on gas flowrate basically focused on the blowing mode with the same gas flowrates for every plug (Mode-S), while the mode with different flowrates (Mode-D) has not yet been reported. In the present work, a water model for a 120 t ladle is carried out to mainly compare the effect of the two gas blowing modes on mixing. Two porous plugs are located at 0.55–0.70R (R is the radius of ladle bottom), with different relative angles (45–180°) and total flowrates (6.92–18.45 NL/min). The results show that Mode-D can significantly change the mixing time. Compared with Mode-S, the mixing time is respectively decreased by 50 seconds at 6.92 NL/min and 30 seconds at 18.45 NL/min when the plug positions are located at 0.64R. The results of mathematical simulation explain the phenomena. In the Mode-D, the strong gas plume forms a larger circulation flow to stir the ladle and the weak plume forms a smaller one. Under this case, the interference and collision from two plumes are weakened and the dissipation of stirring energy is decreased, thus the mixing time is shortened.