Understanding Characteristic of Abrasion of Refractory Lining Caused by Bath Oscillation in BOF Steelmaking

This paper presents a numerical study of the refractory abrasion occurring widely inside basic oxygen furnace ( BOF) steelmaking. The mechanism of refractory abrasion is examined numerically referring to the bath oscillation with regard to flows, turbulence and wall shear stress inside a BOF. The simulation results reveal that the refractory abrasion tends to occur on the wall region between the slag/atmosphere and slag/metal interfaces due to the oscillation of the bath in the blowing process, which generally promotes slag-line erosion. The decreased nozzle angle, and either increased lance height or operation pressure can lead to more serious refractory erosion that occurs more likely during the slag-making period in the operation of BOF.