On the Reacting Interfacial Area of Fire Point in Basic Oxygen Furnace

Abstract

An attempt has been made to calculate the reacting interfacial area of fire point in basic oxygen steelmaking. An examination of the absorption of NH₃ gas from a top blown jet by a liquid bath showed that the absorption efficiency was controlled by the Reynolds and Weber numbers. The influ-ence of We No.appeared to indicate that the surface disturbance created by the jet, waving and splashing, enlarged the gas-liquid contact area.
An equivalent interfacial area for the reacting interfacial area was found to correlate with the maximum decarburization rate, in the available furnace data, assuming that the mass transfer rate per unit area of reacting interface was the same in operating furnaces. The equivalent interfacial area A* was given by A*=A_p (W_e) 0.2, where A_p=calculated surface area of crater by assuming the profile to be parabolic in form, and (W_e)=Weber No.
The equivalent interfacial area and the oxygen flux (=oxygen flow rate/A*) can be regarded as the blowing parameters for single hole and multi hole lance operations.