New design solution for porous plug in the argon steel purging process

Area of Science:

• Metallurgical Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Secondary metallurgy relies on inert gas blowing for liquid steel treatment.
• Current slot plug designs present limitations in gas column formation efficiency.
• Optimizing gas-permeable elements is crucial for improving steel processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate a novel gas-permeable slot-type module for liquid steel processing.
• To compare the performance of different module designs with varying slot configurations.
• To validate a new module design for industrial application in secondary metallurgy.

Main Methods:

• Comparative testing of four module design variants using a 1:3.4 scale water physical model of a ladle.
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical simulations of the hot metal-argon system (1:1 scale).
• Mutual verification of physical modeling and CFD simulation results.

Main Results:

• Identified the most advantageous module design variant based on performance metrics.
• Validated the selected module's effectiveness through industrial trials.
• Demonstrated significant improvements in process efficiency.

Conclusions:

• The novel gas-permeable slot-type module offers superior performance compared to traditional slot plugs.
• Industrial implementation leads to approximately 12% reduction in argon consumption.
• Processing time at the ladle furnace station is reduced by approximately 10%.