Numerical Simulation of RH Circulation Flow in Second Refining Process of Steel

(Multiphase Phenomena in Refining Process of Steel Making Process)

Abstract

Experiment and numerical simulation of RH circulation flow were carried out on water model. Helium gas was injected into water in up-leg and flow rate was estimated at the end of down-leg. Volume of fluid(VOF) simulation was also performed by compressible Inter Foam solver of OpenFOAM, open source CFD toolbox. Three pairs of diameter of up/down-leg,100mm/100mm, 140mm/70mm and 170mm/30mm were estimated and the circulation flow rate by numerical simulation was almost consistent with measurement. Finally the simulation with scaled up mesh and molten steel properties was carried out. The volume of injected gas became larger according to rising in the up-leg because of hydrostatic pressure distribution and the behavior of gas-liquid interface in vessel was simulated qualitatively.