Inclined Jetting and Splashing in Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking

In Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steelmaking, liquid metal splashes on the furnace wall due to the impingement of high speed oxygen jet on molten metal surface. The splashed metal droplets cause wear of furnace wall and loss of production. Optimization of the operating condition (lance angle, lance height and flow rate) may reduce splashing and increase productivity. In the present study, the effect of different operating conditions on the wall splashing rate was investigated. Air was injected on water surface in a small-scale thin slice model at different lance angles, lance heights and flow rates. Splashed liquid in the forward direction was collected and measured in each case. The forward splashing rate was found to increase with the increase of lance angle from the vertical and flow rate. The critical depth of penetration as well as the impact velocity for the onset of splashing was found to decreases with the increase of lance angle from the vertical. The effect of lance angle on the dimensionless Blowing number (NB), which is a measure of droplet generation rate, was quantified. A new approach has been proposed for modelling the gas jet impinging phenomenon inside the real furnace using room temperature water model.