Study of transient behavior of slag layer in bottom purged ladle: A CFD approach

Purging of argon gas in the molten metal bath is a process that is regularly involved in secondary steel making operations. The injected gas imparts momentum to the liquid metal, which induces high turbulence in the molten metal and helps in homogenization of the bath composition and temperature, and facilitates the slag metal interactions. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based numerical investigation is carried out on an argon gas stirred ladle to study the flow and interface behavior in a secondary steel making ladle. A transient, three phase coupled level-set volume of fluid (CLSVOF) model is employed to track the slag-metal, gas-metal and slag-gas interfaces. The transient behavior of slag layer deformation and open eye formation is studied for different slag layer to metal bath height ratios at various argon gas flow rates.