2008 Volume 8 Issue 3 Pages 206-212
Horizontal gas injection into a molten metal bath is widely used in the refining processes such as the desulphurization process and AOD process. Gas is injected from a nozzle (nozzles) at a relatively high flow rate and, hence, a jet of a mixture of gas and liquid is formed in front of the nozzle. This jet is called the bubbling jet. The efficiency of the refining processes is closely associated with the dispersion behavior of the bubbling jet. It is therefore important to understand it dispersion behavior in the horizontal direction. Information on the locus of the bubbling jet is available in the literature. However, the bubbling jet sometimes oscillates in a complex manner, for example, due to interaction with the bath surface. The unsteady behavior of the locus is not understood yet. In this study water is used as a model for molten metal because the kinematic viscosity of water is nearly equal to that of molten metal. Air is used as a model gas for argon or nitrogen used in the real processes. A bubbling jet is generated with a top lance having a single-hole nozzle facing in the horizontal direction. The period and amplitude of the oscillation of the bubbling jet are measured with a high-resolution video camera. In addition, discussion is made on the mechanism of the oscillation of the bubbling jet.
