Bubble and liquid flow characteristics in a wood’s metal bath stirred by bottom helium gas injection

A model study was carried out to elucidate bubble and liquid flow characteristics in the reactor of metals refining processes stirred by gas injection. Wood’s metal with a melting temperature of 70 °C was used as the model of molten metal. Helium gas was injected into the bath through a centered single-hole bottom nozzle to form a vertical bubbling jet along the centerline of the bath. The bubble characteristics specified by gas holdup, bubble frequency, and so on were measured using a two-needle electroresistivity probe, and the liquid flow characteristics, such as the axial and radial mean velocity components, were measured with a magnet probe. In the axial region far from the nozzle exit, where the disintegration of rising bubbles takes place and the radial distribution of gas holdup follows a Gaussian distribution, the axial mean velocity and turbulence components of liquid flow in the vertical direction are predicted approximately by empirical correlations derived originally for a water-air system, although the physical properties of the two systems are significantly different from each other. Under these same conditions, those turbulent parameters in high-temperature metals refining processes should thus be accurately predicted by the same empirical correlations.     

Horizontal Injection of Gas–Liquid Mixtures in a Water Tank

Experiments were carried out to investigate the behavior of horizontal gas–liquid injection in a water tank. Measurements of bubble properties and mean liquid flow structure were obtained. The turbulence in the liquid phase appears to help generating bubbles with relatively uniform diameters of 1–4?mm. Both bubble properties and mean liquid flow structure depended on the gas volume fraction and the densimetric Froude number at the nozzle exit. It was found that the bubbles strongly affected the trajectory of the water jet, which behaved similarly to single-phase buoyant jets. However, at gas volume fractions smaller than about 0.15, the water jet completely separated from the bubble core. Bubble slip velocity was also found to be higher than the terminal velocity for isolated bubbles reported in the literature. Dimensionless correlations were proposed to describe bubble characteristics and the trajectory of the bubble plumes and water jets as a function of the gas volume fraction and the densimetric Froude number. Finally, applications of the results for aeration/mixing purposes are presented.     

Bubble and liquid flow characteristics during horizontal cold gas injection into a water bath

In refining processes such as the AOD process cold gas is blown horizontally into the molten metal bath of the processes. The spatial distribution of bubbles in the bath is one of the important factors influencing the efficiency of the processes. In this study, a water model study was carried out to understand the characteristics of bubbles and liquid flow generated by horizontal gas injection. The bubble and liquid flow characteristics were measured using an electro‐resistivity probe and a laser Doppler velocimeter, respectively. In the flow field near the nozzle the bubble characteristics for the horizontal cold gas injection can be predicted by empirical equations derived for isothermal gas injection systems. The liquid flow characteristics could not be measured in this region. On the other hand, in the region far from the nozzle the two characteristics for the cold gas injection became different from those for the isothermal gas injection because of enhanced buoyancy force acting on expanding cold bubbles due to heat transfer.     

Bubble formation at nozzles in pig iron

An experimental study was undertaken to determine how several variables affect the size of gas bubbles formed at nozzles in liquid pig iron. The frequency of bubble formation was measured by an acoustic device, which could detect the vibrations produced by the bubble release. Accurate knowledge of the gas flow rate then enabled the calculation of bubble volumes. The use of large baths (60 Kg), melted by induction heating, permitted a wide range of experimental parameters: gas flow rate (0.5 to 1000 cc/s), outside nozzle diameter (0.64 to 5.1 cm), inside diameter (0.16 to 0.64 cm), chamber volume (23 to 2200 cc), nozzle depth (7.6 to 20 cm), surface tension (700 to 1500 dynes/cm) and nozzle orientation (up, down and sideways). The resulting bubble volumes were between 0.5 and 100 cc. The bubbles were found to form at the outer diameter of the nozzles due to the nonwettability of the nozzles. Furthermore, the bubbles were of a uniform size at low flow rates, but increased in volume with the flow rate, so that a constant frequency was established. In addition, the bubble volume was strongly dependent on the chamber volume upstream from the nozzle. This is known as a “capacitance” effect and is due to compressibility of the gas. “Doublets” or “double bubbles” at small chamber volumes and bubble “pairs” at large chamber volumes were also observed. These phenomena result in smaller bubbles, which make precise predictions of bubble size difficult. The results are compared with those obtained by other investigators in aqueous and metallic systems.     

Bubble formation at nozzles in pig iron

An experimental study was undertaken to determine how several variables affect the size of gas bubbles formed at nozzles in liquid pig iron. The frequency of bubble formation was measured by an acoustic device, which could detect the vibrations produced by the bubble release. Accurate knowledge of the gas flow rate then enabled the calculation of bubble volumes. The use of large baths (60 Kg), melted by induction heating, permitted a wide range of experimental parameters: gas flow rate (0.5 to 1000 cc/s), outside nozzle diameter (0.64 to 5.1 cm), inside diameter (0.16 to 0.64 cm), chamber volume (23 to 2200 cc), nozzle depth (7.6 to 20 cm), surface tension (700 to 1500 dynes/cm) and nozzle orientation (up, down and sideways). The resulting bubble volumes were between 0.5 and 100 cc. The bubbles were found to form at the outer diameter of the nozzles due to the nonwettability of the nozzles. Furthermore, the bubbles were of a uniform size at low flow rates, but increased in volume with the flow rate, so that a constant frequency was established. In addition, the bubble volume was strongly dependent on the chamber vol-ume upstream from the nozzle. This is known as a “capacitance” effect and is due to compressibility of the gas. “Doublet” or “double bubbles” at small chamber volumes and bubble “pairs” at large chamber volumes were also observed. These phenomena re-sult in smaller bubbles, which make precise predictions of bubble size difficult. The re-sults are compared with those obtained by other investigators in aqueous and metallic systems.     

Bubble formation during horizontal gas injection into downward-flowing liquid

Bubble formation during gas injection into turbulent downward-flowing water is studied using high-speed videos and mathematical models. The bubble size is determined during the initial stages of injection and is very important to turbulent multiphase flow in molten-metal processes. The effects of liquid velocity, gas-injection flow rate, injection hole diameter, and gas composition on the initial bubble-formation behavior have been investigated. Specifically, the bubble-shape evolution, contact angles, size, size range, and formation mode are measured. The bubble size is found to increase with increasing gas-injection flow rate and decreasing liquid velocity and is relatively independent of the gas injection hole size and gas composition. Bubble formation occurs in one of four different modes, depending on the liquid velocity and gas flow rate. Uniform-sized spherical bubbles form and detach from the gas injection hole in mode I for a low liquid speed and small gas flow rate. Modes III and IV occur for high-velocity liquid flows, where the injected gas elongates down along the wall and breaks up into uneven-sized bubbles. An analytical two-stage model is developed to predict the average bubble size, based on realistic force balances, and shows good agreement with measurements. Preliminary results of numerical simulations of bubble formation using a volume-of-fluid (VOF) model qualitatively match experimental observations, but more work is needed to reach a quantitative match. The analytical model is then used to estimate the size of the argon bubbles expected in liquid steel in tundish nozzles for conditions typical of continuous casting with a slide gate. The average argon bubble sizes generated in liquid steel are predicted to be larger than air bubbles in water for the same flow conditions. However, the differences lessen with increasing liquid velocity.     

Simulation of Gas Flow Field in Laval Nozzle and Straight Nozzle for Powder Metallurgy and Spray Forming

Gas flow field in nozzles and out of nozzles was calculated for Laval orifice and straight orifice nozzles. The results showed that the flow generated by the Laval nozzle had a higher exit velocity in the vicinity of the nozzle, in comparison with that of the straight nozzle, that is to say, a Laval nozzle was more efficient than a straight one in disintegrating the melt stream and was apt to produce finer powders. The flow generated by the Laval nozzle was less convergent and the velocity gradient along the radial direction was more moderate than that of a straight nozzle, which could contribute to a broad distribution of melt particles. According to their flow characteristics, the Laval nozzle was reckoned as a better choice of producing larger spray-formed billets.     

Detailed Modeling of Gas Flow in Liquid Steel: Bubble Size Distribution and Voidage Calculation

Although the role of gas purging in liquid steel systems is well recognized, it has yet to be adequately analyzed. One key aspect of this process is the prediction of gas voidage in the bath, which has been studied in great detail beginning with water modeling in the early days and using advanced multiphase models more recently. Still, there are significant unresolved issues with gas purging systems. When gas is introduced through a nozzle at high flow rate, a jet may form which is undesirable. The break‐up of this jet into bubbles is a separate topic of research. The more common practice in the steel industry is to use porous plugs for gas injection. Gas entry through a porous plug can be characterized by the stretched bubble regime, and the laws of coalescence and fragmentation used to analyze bubble column reactors are generally applicable. Calculation of the bubble size distribution is important for two reasons. First, the voidage distribution in the bath is significantly modified by the injection system and flow rates used, primarily due to changes in flow regime and bubble dynamics (collision, break‐up, coalescence). Second, the voidage distribution directly determines the buoyancy, that influences the physical mixing process, and the specific‐area‐density, that influences surface reactions (for example, decarburization, desulfurization and nitrogen pick‐up). In this paper, a numerical study is presented that combines a bubble dynamics model with an Eulerian multiphase model. The results of the simulation are compared with the experimental data from Anagbo and Brimacombe (1990). Relevant discussion and reviews will be presented to distinguish the differences of this detailed bubble dynamics model with the uniform bubble diameter approximations reported in various recent studies.     

中间包上水口环形吹氩下气泡大小和迁移行为研究

摘要：通过水模型实验研究了上水口环形吹氩工艺下中间包和结晶器内气泡形貌,并结合数值模拟分析了透气砖位置、拉坯速度和吹氩量对中间包和结晶器内气泡尺寸、气泡迁移和中间包近液面钢液流动的影响。结果表明：上水口环形吹氩形成以塞棒为中心的圆台状气泡羽流,气泡浓度沿径向向外逐渐减少;附壁效应使得气泡羽流偏向塞棒壁面流动,增大气泡的碰撞聚并概率和近塞棒壁面的羽流上升速度,对中间包液面产生较大冲击作用;同时,部分细小气泡会随钢液进入水口及结晶器内部;增大吹氩量,中间包内环形气泡羽流中气泡数目明显增多,中间包近液面钢液上升速度增大;增大拉坯速度,环形气泡羽流的宽度和气泡数量逐渐减小,近液面速度减小;增大透气环距水口中心距离,中间包内气泡弥散度增大,环形气泡羽流宽度也随之增大,气泡羽流对中间包液面冲击作用减弱;增大吹氩量和拉坯速度、减小透气环距水口中心距离,进入结晶器的气量和气泡尺寸逐渐增大。实验条件下,透气环内外径为110mm/140mm、拉坯速度为1.2m/min时,吹氩量为4L/min较为合适。     

高拉速板坯连铸结晶器浸入式水口的水模型研究

利用染料示踪法,采用波高传感器和旋桨式流速仪在全比例水模型中研究了四种浸入式水口(A型:凹型,15°(上角度)-15°(下角度);B型:凸型,15°-15°;C型:凹型,40°-15°,D型:凸型,40°-15°)下板坯连铸结晶器内的流场和液面特征.发现采用凹型水口时结晶器液面的波动与表面流速均小于凸型水口.凹型水口F的表面流速变化的功率(频率为0.03~0.1Hz)比凸型水口小约50%,所以凹型水口更有利于减少结晶器内卷渣的发生.在高拉速条件下(拉速为1.8m·min-1,较大的水口出口上角度有利于抑制水口出口流股的漩涡流,进而减少剪切卷渣的发生.四种水口中C型水口条件下结晶器液面的表面流速最小,约为0.27m·s-1,为提高拉速留有较大余地,所以适合高拉速连铸的最佳浸入式水口为C型.      

Study on dimension and migration behavior of bubble under annular argon blowing at tundish upper nozzle

The water model experiments were carried out to study the bubble morphology in the tundish and mold with the process of annular argon blowing at tundish upper nozzle. The effects of the position of gas permeable brick, the casting speed and the argon flow rate on the bubble size distribution, the bubble migration behavior and the flow behavior of liquid steel near the liquid level in tundish were further investigated, coupled with the numerical simulation. The results show that with the process of annular argon blowing at tundish upper nozzle, a frustum cone shaped bubble plume can be formed around the stopper rod. The concentration of argon bubbles gradually decreases outward along the radial direction of the stopper rod. Owing to the wall attached effect, the bubble plumes float upward along the stopper rod, which can increase the collision probability between bubbles and the velocity of bubble plumes, causing a larger impact strength on the liquid level in tundish. In addition, a part of small bubbles are wrapped into the nozzle and the mold due to the drag force of liquid steel. With increasing argon flow rate, the number of bubbles in annular bubble plumes and the vertical velocity of liquid steel near the liquid level in tundish increase significantly. With increasing casting speed, the width and the bubble number of annular bubble plumes gradually decrease, leading to a decrease of the vertical velocity of liquid steel near the liquid level in tundish. Increasing the distance between the annular gas permeable brick and the center of tundish upper nozzle, the dispersion of bubbles and the width of bubble plumes increase, and the impact strength of bubbles acting on the liquid level in tundish becomes weaker. As the argon flow rate and the casting speed increase, and the distance between the gas permeable brick and the center of tundish upper nozzle decreases, the gas volume and bubble size in the mold increase. Under the experimental conditions, when the inner and outer diameters of the annular gas permeable brick are 110mm and 140mm, respectively, and the casting speed is 1.2m/min, the appropriate argon flow rate is 4L/min.     

Effects of pore diameter, bath surface pressure, and nozzle diameter on the bubble formation from a porous nozzle

The effects of the pore diameter, bath surface pressure, and nozzle diameter on the bubble formation from a porous bottom nozzle placed in a water bath and on the behavior of rising bubbles were investigated with still and high-speed video cameras and a two-needle electroresistivity probe. Three types of bubble dispersion patterns were observed with respect to gas flow rate, and they were named the low, medium, and high gas flow rate regimes. The transition boundaries between these gas flow rate regimes were expressed in terms of the superficial velocity at the nozzle exit, i.e., the volumetric gas flow rate per unit nozzle surface area. These transition boundaries were dependent on the pore diameter but hardly dependent on the bath surface pressure and the porous nozzle diameter. The characteristics of rising bubbles in each gas flow rate regime were investigated as functions of the three parameters.     

Water-Modeling Study of the Surface Disturbances in Continuous Slab Caster

The present work is based on four static molds using nozzles of different port diameter, port angle, and immersion depth. It has been observed that the meniscus is wavy. The wave amplitude shows a parabolic variation with the nozzle exit velocity. The dimensionless amplitude is found to vary linearly with the Froude number. Vortex formation and bubble entrainment by the wave occurs at the meniscus beyond a critical flow rate, depending upon the nozzle configuration, immersion depth, and the mold aspect ratio.     

Turbulent flow of liquid steel and argon bubbles in slide-gate tundish nozzles: Part I. model development and validation

The quality of continuous-cast steel is greatly affected by the flow pattern in the mold, which depends mainly on the jets flowing from the outlet ports in casting with submerged tundish nozzles. An Eulerian multiphase model using the finite-difference program CFX has been applied to study the three-dimensional (3-D) turbulent flow of liquid steel with argon bubbles in slide-gate tundish nozzles. Part I of this two-part article describes the model formulation, grid refinement, convergence strategies, and validation of this model. Equations to quantify average jet properties at the nozzle exit are presented. Most of the gas exits the upper portion of the nozzle port, while the main downward swirling flow contains very little gas. Particle-image velocimetry (PIV) measurements are performed on a 0.4-scale water model to determine the detailed nature of the swirling velocity profile exiting the nozzle. Predictions with the computational model agree well with the PIV measurements. The computational model is suitable for simulating dispersed bubbly flows, which exist for a wide range of practical gas injection rates. The model is used for extensive parametric studies of the effects of casting operation conditions and nozzle design, which are reported in Part II of this two-part article.     

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.     

Turbulent flow of liquid steel and argon bubbles in slide-gate tundish nozzles: Part II. Effect of operation conditions and nozzle design

A three-dimensional (3-D) finite-volume model, developed and validated in Part I of this two-part article, is employed to study steady-state two-phase turbulent flow of liquid steel and argon bubbles through slide-gate tundish nozzles. Parametric studies are performed to investigate the effects of gas injection, slide-gate orientation, casting speed, gate opening, bubble size, port angle, and port shape on the flow pattern and characteristics of the jet exiting the nozzle port. Argon gas injection bends the jet angle upward, enhances the turbulence level, and reduces the size of the backflow zone. Gas injection becomes less influential with increasing casting speed. The off-center blocking effect of the slide gate generates an asymmetric flow that changes with the gate orientation. The 0-deg gate orientation creates the worst biased flow between the two ports. The 90-deg orientation generates significant swirl and directs the jet slightly toward one of the wide faces. The 45-deg orientation generates both types of asymmetry and, thus, appears undesirable. The horizontal jet angle indicates asymmetric flow in the horizontal plane. It increases with decreasing gate opening and decreasing gas injection rate and ranges from 3 to 5 deg. Most jet characteristics reach their maximum or minimum values near the critical opening of 60 pct (linear).Larger bubbles exert a greater influence on the flow pattern. The vertical jet angle becomes steeper with a steeper port angle and more slender port shape. These results will be useful for nozzle design and for future modeling of flow in the mold.     

Investigation of the kinetics of breakup of gas bubbles in liquid metals with digital simulation method

The method of digital system simulation can be effectively used to quantify the complex multiphase interactions within a gas injection process. Process simulation results yield a better understanding and a better aimed engineering of gas dispersion techniques in metallurgical processes. In this paper the breakup phenomenon of gas bubbles in stagnant liquids is simulated and the dependencies between breakup of bubbles and various parameters of a gas dispersion process such as operative parameters, system parameters and mass transfer rates are investigated. The bubble diameter after breakup is almost independent of the nozzle diameter and gas flow rate. The frequency of bubble breakup and critical bubble size depend on the rate of mass transfer into the bubble. An almost constant rising velocity is achieved only in those cases investigated where mass transfer and bubble breakup are considered. In all other cases no stationary rising velocity is obtained. The interplay between bubble size, rising velocity and the inertia of the surrounding liquid and the influence of mass transfer and breakup are investigated. Simulation results reveal that the behaviour of an ascending bubble is strongly influenced by the mass transfer rate, i. e. by the composition of the melt. Verification of the simulation results with empirical equations from literature shows a very good agreement in all dispersion systems investigated.     

Measurement of physical characteristics of bubbles in gas-liquid plumes: Part II. Local properties of turbulent air-water plumes in vertically injected jets

The structural development of air-water bubble plumes during upward injection into a ladle-shaped vessel has been measured under different conditions of air flow rate, orifice diameter, and bath depth. The measured radial profiles of gas fraction at different axial positions in the plume were found to exhibit good similarity, and the distribution of the phases in the plume was correlated to the modified Froude number. Different regions of flow behavior in the plume were identified by changes in bubble frequency, bubble velocity, and bubble pierced length which occur as bubbles rise in the plume. Measurement of bubble velocity indicates that close to the nozzle the motion of the gas phase is strongly affected by the injection velocity; at injection velocities below 41 m/s, the velocity of the bubbles along the centerline exhibits an increase with height, while above, the tendency reverses. High-speed film observations suggest that this effect is related to the nature of gas discharge,i.e., whether the gas discharge produces single bubbles or short jets. In this region of developing flow, measurement of bubble frequency and pierced length indicates that break-up of the discharging bubbles occurs until a nearly constant bubble-size distribution is established in a region of fully developed flow. In this largest zone of the plume the bubbles influence the flow only through buoyancy, and the spectra of bubble pierced length and diameter can be fitted to a log-normal distribution. Close to the bath surface, a third zone of bubble motion behavior is characterized by a faster decrease in bubble velocity as liquid flows radially outward from the plume.     

Plume characteristics and liquid circulation in gas injection through a porous plug

Various forms of plumes have been identified following the injection of air at different rates through a porous plug into water contained in a ladle-shaped vessel. Discrete bubbles form at the plug and rise uniformly through the column of liquid at gas flow rates up to 14 cm³/s cm² of plug surface; at higher flow rates, groups of bubbles increasingly coalesce into larger gas pockets, and beyond about 40 cm³/s cm², the gas globes are large enough to cover the entire plug surface before detachment and gradual disintegration as they rise through the body of liquid. The gas fraction, as well as bubble frequency, bubble velocity, and bubble size, have been measured in the various dispersion regimes by means of an electroresistivity probe. The radial distributions of gas fraction and bubble frequency are approximately bell-shaped about the axis of flow, and the reduced values are close to Gaussian functions of the reduced radial distance from the axis. The gas fraction along the axis has been correlated to the reduced height of the plume; it increases with decreasing distance above the plug and with increasing gas flow rate. The axial bubble frequency shows a decrease in the vicinity of the plug with the onset of bubble coalescence, but the values of the frequencies at all gas injection rates converge to about 12 s⁻¹ toward the surface of the bath. The mean bubble velocity increases with increasing flow rate but drops once coalescence is fully established. Conversely, there is a sudden increase in the mean bubble diameter with the onset of coalescence. The axial and radial components of the velocity of the liquid surrounding the plume have been measured by means of a Laser-Doppler Velocimeter (LDV), and the results show that the circulation patterns are identical, irrespective of the dispersion regime. The axial flow which is upward in the vicinity of the plume decreases in magnitude with increasing radial distance, ultimately reversing to an in-creasing downward flow beyond a certain distance from the plug axis. Similarly, the radial flow which is outward from the plume near the liquid surface decreases steadily with depth and eventually reverses to an inward flow at a depth independent of the gas injection rate. The profiles of the axial velocities are almost sigmoidal, except in the coalescence regime, where the effect of turbulence is profound at the upper liquid layers. The radial liquid velocities are generally small relative to the axial components, only about one-fifth as large, considering the maximum average values.     

吹气孔直径对钢包模型内流动的影响

采用相似比为1∶10的水模型研究了钢包底吹氩系统中吹气孔直径对钢液流动的影响,通过测量钢包中心面的速度场,得到流体流动随吹气孔直径的变化规律。研究结果表明,吹气孔直径在1~3 mm范围内,随吹气孔直径增加,气柱、液面和包壁附近的流体速度减小,整个钢包内速度场分布更均匀。随吹气孔直径增加,涡心坐标从(0.12,0.12)向(0.12,0.10)和(0.12,0.09)变化,涡心向上移动,横向移动不明显。随着吹气孔直径的增加,底部产生的气泡直径变大,混匀时间有所减小。