Circular slits are introduced in purging plugs for alleviating the stress concentration to prolong their service life. Herein, the effects of slits with different geometries on the mixing time, inclusion removal rate, and slag eye area are studied by water model method. Experimental results show that the inclusion removal rate decreases with increasing slit angle for the gas flow rate of less than 6.02 NL min À1 . Moreover, with slit diameter increases, the mixing time and inclusion removal rate decrease when a gas flow rate is less than 5.26 NL min À1 . The slag eye area increases with increasing slit diameter, and the slit angle has a positive influence on the formation of the slag eye. Finally, the optimization of the mixing time and inclusion removal rate for less consumption of stirring energy and less slag entrapment indicates that the smaller the slag eye area is, the better the refining effect is.

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Purging plugs are important functional units in advanced steel‐making processes, which experience extreme heat exchange and temperature changes during the purging procedure. Fluid–solid conjugate heat transfer modeling is conducted to determine the inconstant and instantaneous heat transfer coefficients at slit walls. Further thermomechanical simulations are performed on the purging plug by assuming elastic material behavior. Dimensionless temperature change and stress analysis indicate that transverse tensile failure is highly likely at the area close to 0.323 m from the base of the frustum purging plug. A comparison with practical observations proves that thermomechanical modeling coupled with the fluid–solid conjugate heat transfer method is a useful approach for investigating purging plugs under practical service conditions, as well as other cases involving fluid–solid interactions.

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