Fluid dynamics and mass transfer in submerged gas-particle jets

A room temperature model of a submerged gas-particle jet was used to investigate the hydrodynamics and gas-liquid mass transfer in such systems. Air or CO₂ was used to inject particles of silica sand into water. In some cases, the sand was coated with resin to produce a hydrophobic surface. The flow regimes of behavior were observed: In the bubbling flow regime large bubbles of gas are formed and penetrated by a stream of particles which did not entrain gas, and in the steady jet flow regime the gas and particles travel together in a narrow cone. The second flow regime is favored by a high gas velocity, a small particle size, and a high ratio of particles to gas in the jet. The surface characteristics of the injected particles do not appear to affect this transition. A CO₂-NaOH solution model was used to determine the effects of inert particle injection of the rate of mass transfer from gas to liquid. The rate of mass transfer was higher in steady cone jets, because under these conditions, the gas is dispersed into finer bubbles and carried deeper in the bath. Formerly Graduate Student in the Department of Civil Engineering, Mechanics, and Metallurgy, University of Illinois at Chicago     

Fluid dynamics in channel reactors stirred by submerged gas injection

This work describes the fluid flow and associated local and longitudinal mixing phenomena which influence the behavior and characteristics of continuous flow reactors, such as the Noranda reactor and the Q-S process. In the present work, mixing in channel reactors agitated by submerged gas injection along the length has been studied using a water model. The effects of gas injector separation, gas flow rate, depth of water, lateral configuration of injectors, submersion depth of gas injectors, and width of the channel have been investigated. It has been found that the longitudinal mixing depended significantly on the locations of the gas injectors. For constant values of other variables, there existed an optimum injector separation at which maximum longitudinal mixing was found. Industrial applications of this study are described.     

Fluid dynamics in channel reactors stirred by submerged gas injection

This work describes the fluid flow and associated local and longitudinal mixing phenomena which influence the behavior and characteristics of continuous flow reactors, such as the Noranda reactor and the Q-S process. In the present work, mixing in channel reactors agitated by submerged gas injection along the length has been studied using a water model. The effects of gas injector separation, gas flow rate, depth of water, lateral configuration of injectors, submersion depth of gas injectors, and width of the channel have been investigated. It has been found that the longitudinal mixing depended significantly on the locations of the gas injectors. For constant values of other variables, there existed an optimum injector separation at which maximum longitudinal mixing was found. Industrial applications of this study are described.     

Physical characteristics of gas jets injected vertically upward into liquid metal

The time-averaged structure of plumes has been measured with a two-element electroresistivity probe during upward injection of nitrogen or helium into mercury in a ladle-shaped vessel. From these measurements and data obtained earlier for air jets in water, general correlations linking the spatial distribution of gas fraction with the Froude number and gas/liquid density ratio have been developed. Early evidence suggests that these correlations should be applicable to gas-stirred metallurgical baths. Measurements of the profiles of bubble velocity and bubble pierced length reveal that the kinetic energy of the gas is dissipated close to the nozzle, and buoyancy dominates flow over most of the plume. Castillejos E., formerly with the Centre for Metallur-gical Process Engineering, The University of British Columbia,     

Characteristics of round vertical gas bubble jets

Radial and axial profiles of gas concentration and bubble frequency have been measured for vertical gas bubble jets in the systems air/water, helium/water, and nitrogen/mercury using an electroresistivity probe. Gas velocities have been determined in the air/water system. All radial profiles were close to Gaussian. An integral model was applied to calculate axial distributions theoretically. Entrainment coefficients were determined for the experimental conditions. Axial profiles were correlated also in nondimensional representations. The bubble frequencies were used to compute local and average values of bubble size. Jet expansion and bubble size were found to depend considerably on the physical properties of the system. K. -H. Tacke and K. Schwerdtfeger were with Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung when part of the experiment was carried out.     

The breakup of bubbles into jets during submerged gas injection

There has never been any fundamental explanation presented for the transition from the bubbling regime to the jetting regime when gas is injected into liquid at high velocity through submerged tuyeres. This is an important issue in metallurgical processes, since the flow regime is known to influence refining rates, refractory erosion, and the penetration of the liquid into the tuyere. Based on the observation that many small droplets of liquid and gas bubbles are formed to create the jets, a combined Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor instability analysis has been applied to bubbles forming at submerged tuyeres. For particular wavelengths of disturbances, the interface will be unstable and create bubbles and droplets. The critical injection velocity for instability depends on surface tension, tuyere diameter, and the gas-to-liquid density ratio, which can be summarized by We = 10.5(ρ*)^−1/2, where We is the Weber number based on the gas velocity and density and tuyere diameter, and ρ* is the gas-to-liquid density ratio. The importance of surface tension had not been appreciated previously for this regime of gas injection. There is considerable controversy in the literature concerning the measurement of the transition from bubbling to jetting. The 70 pct “linking” point, proposed by Ozawa and Mori, describes the situation where 70 pct of the bubbles link with the preceding bubbles and produce a reasonably steady jet. The theoretical correlation developed above predicts the velocity to reach this point ±20 pct (95 pct confidence level) in a variety of systems from six different groups of workers. The theoretical analysis demonstrates that the instabilities are primarily capillary in nature, not gravity waves, which explains the observation that orientation has little effect on the jetting transition.     

Jet penetration and liquid splash in submerged gas injection

Jet penetration, bubble dispersion, and liquid splash were studied in the nitrogen-water system. Among the effects evaluated were those due to lance design, nozzle dimensions, gas driving pressure, and liquid density. In side-nozzle injection, penetration is found to increase with jet force number,N, given by the product of the gas driving pressure and the nozzle diameter. In top-submerged injection, horizontal and vertical penetrations increase with the horizontal and vertical components, respectively, of the jet force number. Liquid splash is greater in the side-nozzle injection than in top-submerged multiple-orifice injection, and appears to decrease as the number of orifices increases.     

Mixing of concentric gas jets issuing vertically into a liquid

Mixing of two concentric jets of dissimilar gases blown vertically upward through wafer was investigated experimentally. Air was blown through the inner pipe and carbon dioxide through the annular space between the inner and the outer pipes. The two jets mixed rapidly upon emergence from the nozzle. This made physical shielding of the air jet by CO₂ ineffective. It was caused by the fact that the air bubbles during and upon emergence from the nozzle were large. Moreover, they exhibited oscillations which made them spread over the annulus. Pursuing this argument it has been inferred that physical shielding would be ineffective in OBM/Q-BOP converter process of steelmaking as well. Therefore, protection of tuyere lining by shrouding gas seems to be due to thermal and chemical shielding, primarily. N.B. BALLAL, formerly a Graduate Student at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, is presently     

Fluid flow behaviour of liquid in cylindrical vessels stirred by one or two air jets

In the present paper, based on the two‐phase model (Eulerian‐Eulerian model), the three‐dimensional fluid flow in water system and liquid steel system stirred by one or two gas jets is simulated. A new modified k‐? turbulence model is introduced to consider the bubbles movement contribution to k and ?. The mathematical simulation agrees well with the experimental results. Calculation indicates that the distance of the two jet nozzles has a big effect on the fluid flow behaviour. Placing two gas injection nozzles at the half radii of one diameter of the bottom generates a much better mixing than that injected by only one nozzle with the same total gas flow rate.     

Model investigations on liquid velocity induced by submerged gas injection in steel bath

The technique of dissolution rate measurement is used to determine the liquid velocity induced by different locations of submerged-lance gas injection. As a result of the study the equations are proposed to calculate the liquid velocity for any location of submerged lance. It has been shown that off-centre lance location increases considerably the potential of submerged gas injection in terms of attaining the uniform liquid velocity in the bath and decreasing the total dissolution time of the additive.     

Mass transfer between a horizontal,submerged gas jet and a liquid

The rate of reaction between a horizontal, submerged gas jet and a liquid has been measured in a model system under conditions where mass transfer in the gas phase is rate limiting. The gas was 1 pct SO₂ in air, and the liquid was a 0.3 pct solution of hydrogen peroxide in water. SO₂ absorption rates were measured as a function of jet Reynolds number (10,000 < N_Re < 40,000) and jet orifice diameter (0.238 < d₀ < 0.476 cm). The product of the gas phase mass transfer coefficient and the interfacial area per unit length of jet trajectory, k_SO2 α was found to increase linearly with increasing Reynolds number and to be a strong function of the orifice diameter. The ratio of k_so2 α to volumetric gas flow rate was shown to be independent of Reynolds number for a given orifice diameter. Extrapolated values of k_so2 α are lower than the coefficients measured for vertical CO jets blown upward through liquid copper. Extrapolation of the measured mass transfer data to the jet conditions in copper matte converting and in the gaseous deoxidation of copper has indicated that the gas utilization efficiencies in these processes should approach 100 pct if gas phase mass transport is rate controlling.     

Modeling of infiltration kinetics for liquid metal processing of composites

An equation for modeling the kinetics of liquid-metal infiltration into a porous compact has been developed. The model is based on considering a bundle of capillary tubes as an analog for the porous compact. A solution which describes a limiting form of behavior has been shown to be valid for small extents of infiltration relative to a hypothetical static state. The numerical solutions of the dimensionless infiltration-equation have been used to delineate conditions for which limiting solutions are valid. A dimensionless group λ has been shown to be capable of classifying the behavior into two limiting cases: either “inviscid-flow“, λ 10^-2, or “viscous-flow“, λ > 10². It would appear that for capillary-tube (pore) radii less than 100 μ-m and for conditions where the compact is wetted by the liquid metal, A is likely to be >100 and therefore correspond to a “viscous-flow system“. Also, an infiltration-rate parameter, ϕ, has been selected which can be used to assess the effects of alloying additions to the liquid-metal infiltrant. This parameter can therefore provide for the selection of alloy infiltrants, surface preparation modification, and processing parameters such as temperature, time of infiltration, and pore size of compact in regard to the processing of composites. Although the model concept (capillary-tube bundle) is recognized as being deficient in not treating the compact as what it really is (a porous medium), the work presented was intended to quantify the limiting behavior of the capillary-tube-bundle approach which has been used in the past.     

Flow regimes in submerged gas injection

The behavior of gas discharging into a liquid has been investigated in the labora-tory and in plant. The laboratory work has involved the injection of different gases from a submerged, horizontal tuyere into water, zinc-chloride solution, and a mercury bath. High speed cinematography and pressure measurements in the tuyere have been carried out to characterize the flow regimes. In the case of the mercury bath, a novel “half-tuyere” has been developed to permit visual observation of the gas. In this way, two regimes of flow, bubbling and steady jetting, have been delineated as a function of the modified Froude number and the ratio of gas to liquid densities. Pressure measurements at the tuyere tip have been correlated to the different stages of bubble growth in the bubbling regime, and can be used to distinguish one flow regime from the other. The measured bubble frequency and volume correspond reasonably well to predictions of a simple model of bubble growth under conditions of constant flow. The forward penetration of the jet centerline from the tuyere tip has been measured and found to depend both onN _Fr′ andρg/ρl. In the industrial tests, pressure taps have been installed in the tuyeres of a nickel converter to monitor the pressure wave of the jets under normal, low pressure blowing operations. The measurements show that the converter jets operate in the bubbling mode with a bubble frequency of 10 to 12 s⁻¹, similar to a gas jet in mercury. Tests involving higher pressure injection indicate that the steady jetting, or underexpanded, regime obtains at pressures of about 340 kPa (50 psi). Based on equivalent experiments in the laboratory, it is clear that low pressure blowing has the disadvantage of poor penetration of air into the bath so that the jets rise close to the back wall and locally accelerate refractory wear. Moreover between the formation of successive bubbles, the bath washes against the tuyere mouth and contributes to accretion formation. This necessitates periodic punching of the tuyeres which also contributes to refractory wear at the tuyere line. The use of high pressure injection to achieve steady jetting conditions, as currently practiced in the new bottom blown steelmaking processes, should be considered to solve these prob-lems, and possibly usher in a new generation of nonferrous converters.     

液态金属超声雾化喷嘴的气雾化性能影响因素

采用Fluent软件建立超声雾化喷嘴气流场的数值模拟模型,研究入口压力、导液管孔径与伸出长度对超声雾化喷嘴气雾化性能的影响,并采用超声雾化法制备GCr15轴承钢粉末,验证入口压力对粉末粒度的影响。结果表明:导液管伸出长度Δh=1 mm时,入口压力越大,越有利于提高雾化效果;在Δh=2 mm或Δh=3 mm条件下,当入口压力小于2.0 MPa时,增大入口压力可有效提高雾化性能,而当入口压力超过2.0 MPa后,增大入口压力对提高雾化性能效果有限。导液管的孔径对气流场结构影响较小,主要通过影响金属液的质量流率来影响雾化效果。雾化实验结果表明,在Δh=1 mm、导液管孔径d=4.5 mm时,2.8 MPa入口压力下的雾化性能优于2.0 MPa与1.2 MPa下的雾化性能,获得的GCr15轴承钢粉末平均粒径最小,整体球形度最佳,该实验结果与数值模拟研究结果一致。     

Penetrability of impinging gas jets in molten steel bath

An experimental study is carried out to determine the penetrability of impinging gas jets in molten steel baths of BOF and combined blown steelmaking. Depth and diameter of the depression produced by an impinging single jet or multi-nozzle jets are measured and correlated successfully with dimensionless momentum flow rate number. The equations are represented in the form of a nomogram by which the depth and diameter of the depression in a molten steel bath during the blow can be determined from easily available top blowing parameters.     

The physical behavior of a gas jet injected horizontally into liquid metal

The gas fraction and bubble frequency distributions in a submerged air jet, injected horizontally into mercury, have been measured under isothermal, nonreactive conditions for nozzle diameters of 0.325 and 0.476 cm and jet Froude numbers ranging from 20.5 to 288. The measurements reveal that the jets expand extremely rapidly upon discharge from the nozzle with an initial expansion angle of 150 to 155 deg. This value, which is over seven times greater than is found with air jets in water, indicates that the physical properties of the liquid exert considerable influence on the jet behavior. In conjunction with the rapid expansion, the air jets in mercury were also found to penetrate extensively behind the nozzle, and in many respects resembled a vertically injected jet. The extent of backward penetration of the jets was constant for all blowing conditions studied while the forward penetration increased with both increasing jet Froude number and nozzle diameter. The measured jet penetration in both the forward and backward directions were considerably larger than expected from model predictions. The core of the jets consists of a high concentration of gas bubbles. Both the gas volume fraction and bubble frequency in the core increase with increasing jet Froude number and nozzle diameter. The gas concentration and bubble frequency decrease with increasing distance along the jet trajectory due presumably to entrainment of liquid metal and bubble coalescence. On the basis of these findings, it is likely that process jets, such as are injected into copper converters, also expand rapidly and penetrate only a short distance into the bath. Thus rather than reacting in the middle of the bath, the jets may be impinging on the backwall refractory and contributing to the erosion observed there.