Heat transfer and lance clogging during submerged powder injection

Nitrogen and silica particles of 30, 130, and 450 μm average diameters were injected at solid-to-gas loadings up to 280 kg/m3 into liquid lead at 400°C through a steel lance equipped with four thermo-couples. The lance was positioned adjacent to a transparent wall in the lead retort so that the flow patterns could be photographed. It was found that 130 and 450 μm particle injection produced bubling in the lead and clogging at high loadings, while the 30 μm particles produced jetting with no clogging. Analysis of the thermocouple responses permitted the determination of the heat transfer coefficients at the inner and outer lance surfaces. The inner surface heat transfer coefficient increased with loading, whereas the one at the outer surface was independent of loading. A two-phase, unsteady-state, one-dimensional model was developed for momentum and heat transfer in the lance permitting the calculation of gas and particle velocities, volume fractions, and temperatures as well as the lance temperatures. Using the experimentally determined heat transfer coefficients, it is shown that the gas and particles are heated only 20 to 40 K in the lance. Nevertheless, this is a large heat demand which chills the lance so that clogging will occur in the bubbling regime.