Energy Balance Around Gas Injection into Oxygen Steelmaking

In the present work, a simplified approach of energy balance around gas injection into oxygen steelmaking has been carried out in a cold model. The aim is to provide an estimation of the amount of energy consumed by the different parts of the injection process such as dissipation, stirring of the bath, cavity formation, and splashing. Calculation of jet power used by different processes has been carried for various operating conditions and cavity modes (i.e., splashing and penetrating). Calculations showed that dissipation and splashing are the dominant processes where most of the power of the jet is used, whereas cavity formation consumes the least amount. In the splashing mode, the percentage of total input power going into dissipation was about 59 to 63 pct, whereas it was found to be 2.6 to 50 pct in the penetrating mode. In splashing mode, about 30 pct power from the nozzle was used to create splash which is proved to be an efficient mode for droplet generation as less power is required to create droplets. At a certain lance height, the percentages of total input power used for splashing and dissipation were found equal. Below this lance height, all the cavities were found to be in penetrating mode. This simplified approach provides an improved understanding of the gas injection process and may be used for developing models of the injection process of steelmaking.