Modeling of Droplet Generation in a Top Blowing Steelmaking Process

Quantification of metal droplets ejected due to impinging gas jet on the surface of liquid metal is an important parameter for the understanding and for the modeling of the refining kinetics of reactions in slag-metal emulsion zone. In the present work, a numerical study has been carried out to critically examine the applicability of droplet generation rate correlation previously proposed by Subagyo et al. on the basis of dimensionless blowing number (NB). The blowing number was re-evaluated at the impingement point of jet with taking into account the temperature effect of change in density and velocity of the gas jet. The result obtained from the work shows that the modified blowing number NB,T at the furnace temperature of 1873 K (1600 °C) is approximately double in magnitude compared to NB calculated by Subagyo and co-workers. When NB,T has been employed to the Subagyo’s empirical correlation for droplet generation, a wide mismatch is observed between the experimental data obtained from cold model and hot model experiments. The reason for this large deviation has been investigated in the current study, and a theoretical approach to estimate the droplet generation rate has been proposed. The suitability of the proposed model has been tested by numerically calculating the amount of metals in slag. The study shows that the weight of metals in emulsion falls in the range of 0 to 21 wt pct of hot metal weight when droplet generation rate has been calculated at ambient furnace temperature of 1873 K (1600 °C).