Toward a Full Simulation of the Basic Oxygen Furnace: Deformation of the Bath Free Surface and Coupled Transfer Processes Associated with the Post-Combustion in the Gas Region

The present article treats different phenomena taking place in a steelmaking converter through the development of two separate models. The first model describes the cavity produced at the free surface of the metal bath by the high-speed impinging oxygen jet. The model is based on a zonal approach, where gas compressibility effects are taken into account only in the high velocity jet region, while elsewhere the gas is treated as incompressible. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed to follow the deformation of the bath free surface. Calculations are presented for two- and three-phase systems and compared against experimental data obtained in a cold model experiment presented in the literature. The influence on the size and shape of the cavity of various parameters and models (including the jet inlet boundary conditions, the VOF advection scheme, and the turbulence model) is studied. Next, the model is used to simulate the interaction of a supersonic oxygen jet with the surface of a liquid steel bath in a pilot-scale converter. The second model concentrates on fluid flow, heat transfer, and the post-combustion reaction in the gas phase above the metal bath. The model uses the simple chemical reaction scheme approach to describe the transport of the chemical species and takes into account the consumption of oxygen by the bath and thermal radiative transfer. The model predictions are in reasonable agreement with measurements collected in a laboratory experiment and in a pilot-scale furnace.