Modeling micro-inclusion growth and separation in gas-stirred ladles

Mathematical models of inclusion behavior in stirred ladles are useful both for increasing our fundamental understanding of the growth and removal of inclusions as well as for future use in process control. This study reports on some efforts to use both static and dynamic modeling to better understand inclusion behavior in gas-stirred ladles. A computational-fluid-dynamics mathematical model of a gas-stirred ladle was developed earlier. In the investigation covered in this report, instantaneous fluid-flow results from the model were used in combination with inclusion growth and removal theories in order to study the importance of bubbles on inclusion flotation. The study results proved to be highly dependent on the theory used to describe bubble flotation. The model of the gas-stirred ladle was also used together with the inclusion theories to study the transient behavior of inclusions during growth and removal. The dynamic simulation results indicated that inclusion concentration gradients exist. The most important research task in the near future is to verify static and dynamic modeling results of inclusion behavior during stirring with experimental data. Here, the authors feel that carefully performed plant trials could provide useful information.