Abstract
In the iron and steelmaking industries efficient agitation of molten metal and slag is of essential importance. The main agitation methods currently employed can be classified into three types; gas injection, electromagnetic stirring, and mechanical agitation using an impellor. Injection gases such as Ar are expensive and yet the agitation efficiency is not necessarily high in the gas injection agitation. The electromagnetic stirring processes currently used are too expensive and their use is very limited to special cases such as the continuous casting process. In addition, the efficiency of the mechanical agitation is not so high. Therefore, alternative, cheap and effective mixing methods are required. As one of candidates for the methods, a novel agitation method using a swirl motion of a bottom blown liquid jet is proposed in this study. The characteristics of a swirling liquid jet in a bath with low-density particles on its surface are experimentally investigated. This method is applicable also to wastewater and sludge treatments.
