Toward the Bath Flow Interaction of a 250 t Combined Top and Bottom Blowing Converter Based on a Mathematical Modeling

Herein, the fluid mechanical aspects involving flow interactions between flows formed by the top impinging jet and bottom blowing bubbles in a combined blowing converter bath are focused on. The effects of different operation conditions on the flow field and the kinetic energy of the bath are investigated to examine different roles of the blowing operations with the help of numerical model. It is found that the stirring intensity in the region near the bath wall is decreased even though the flow is more active in the vicinity of the impact cavity when the top lance declines. For the combined blowing converter, the bottom blowing plumes normally dominate the bath flow. However, the bath stirring intensity is increased slightly when the bottom blowing flowrate is higher than a critical value (0.08 Nm(3) min(-1) t(-1)). In addition, the results of energy dissipation demonstrate that higher flowrate of bottom blowing causes more intensive interaction between flows formed by the top and the bottom blowing, which, in turn, causes more energy dissipation.

Automated summary

The study focuses on the fluid mechanical aspects of interactions between top impinging jet and bottom blowing bubbles in a combined blowing converter bath. The results show that bottom blowing plumes usually dominate the bath flow, with increased stirring intensity when the bottom blowing flowrate exceeds a critical value. Moreover, higher bottom blowing flowrate leads to more intensive interaction between top and bottom blowing flows, resulting in increased energy dissipation.