A Fundamental Investigation of Decarburization Reactions in the Argon–Oxygen Decarburization Converter Using Coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics Databases

Abstract

Metallurgical converters such as the argon–oxygen decarburization (AOD) converter generally utilize gas blowing for the mixing and refinement of liquid steel. Due to the harsh environment of the complex and opaque system, it is common practice to study the stirring of the process through physical and numerical models. Effective mixing in the bath has an important role in refinement such as decarburization and has been vividly studied before. However, high‐temperature chemical reactions that also play a major role are sparsely investigated. With the help of modeling, a computational fluid dynamics model coupled with chemical reactions is developed, allowing the study of both dynamic fluid transport and chemical reactions. Herein, the chemical reactions for a single gas bubble in the AOD are investigated. The study shows that a 60 mm oxygen gas bubble rapidly reacts with the melt and is saturated with carbon in 0.2–0.25 s at low‐pressure levels. The saturation time is affected by the pressure and the composition of the injected gas bubble. The impact of ferrostatic pressure on the reactions is more significant at larger depth differences.

The Importance of Mixing Time in Intensely Stirred Metallurgical Reactors: Applied on Decarburization Reactions

“…However, it is also reasonable to assume that there is a point where a decrease in mixing time would not yield any increase in the reaction rates. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop a practical model that combines fluid dynamics with chemical reactions, building upon our previous work [26,27]. An arbitrary metallurgical side-blowing reactor with continuous oxygen supply is utilized in this study to investigate the aforementioned effect focusing on the decarburization reaction in a Fe-C-O system.…”