Development of CFD Simulations of Supersonic Jet Impingement on a Liquid Surface in the Electric Arc Furnace Université de Liège

Abstract

RANS-based CFD simulations of impinging gas jets onto liquid surfaces are conducted using the VOF method to study the jet-bath interaction in the Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking process. The VOF model is first validated using simplified air-water simulations, which are compared with experimental measurements and empirical correlations. The validation results show good agreement between the VOF simulation and experimental results for cavity properties and jet-induced flow. Bubbles are then represented using Lagrangian particles to emulate the production of bubbles from chemical reactions in the EAF process. The results show that bubble generation by gas-phase mass stripping at the cavity's surface increases the cavity depth while decreasing its radius. Finally, a simplified cold model representative of EAF blowing conditions is simulated using a standard supersonic jet. The resulting cavity response and flow in the bath are reported to provide a baseline for future comparison with coherent supersonic jets under EAF conditions.