Investigation of Circulation Flow and Slag-Metal Behavior in an Industrial Single Snorkel Refining Furnace (SSRF): Application to Desulfurization

A combined method of mathematical and physical modeling was used to investigate the circulation flow and slag-metal behavior in industrial SSRF and RH. The circulation flow of molten steel was simulated by using the coupled mathematical model. The results indicate that two different circulation modes are presented separately in SSRF and RH. The incomplete exchange of molten steel was found in SSRF because of the interaction between upflow and downflow in the snorkel, while the molten steel is fully exchanged between the vacuum chamber and ladle in RH. The flow behavior of top slag in the vacuum chamber was further investigated and compared by using cold models. It was found that many slag droplets are generated in the vacuum chamber, and then dragged into ladle by downflow for both reactors. The main difference is that the majority of droplets eventually float into ladle slag in RH, while most of the slag droplets in SSRF is cycled repeatedly, which allows slag droplets to have a longer time to contact with steel. Thus, the slag-steel reaction is more adequate in SSRF. Furthermore, the industrial desulfurization tests were designed to verify the difference in the refining effect between the two kinds of droplet behavior in actual production. The results indicate that the higher desulfurization degree was realized in SSRF with less consumption of argon than that of RH.