Insight into the formation of slag eyes and the mechanism of slag entrapment in the steel-ladle refining process: Hydraulic modeling and numerical simulations

Slag eyes are the upper exposed areas of molten steel in a refining ladle that are formed due to excessive bottom argon bubbling. This phenomenon frequently occurs in the steel-refining process and can lead to slag entrapment and re-oxidation of molten steel. Taking a 150-t industrial steel ladle as the research object, the effects of a dual-plug gas-blown process on the slag-eye size were studied using hydraulic modeling and large-eddy simulations. The experimental results showed that at higher gas flow rates such as 9.1 and 11.7 normal liters/min (Nl/min), the relative central angle of the two porous plugs had a significant effect on the slag-eye size; conversely, at lower gas flow rates, its influence could be ignored. Due to the tendency of the two small slag eyes to merge, the 0.6R–45° (R being the bottom radius of the ladle) case resulted in a larger total slag-eye area compared to the cases with other angles. The 0.6R–135° case showed the most beneficial results for reducing the slag-eye size. Additionally, the numerical simulations helped us to visualize the bubble-uplifting and slag-eye formation processes, and they allowed an exploration of the slag-entrapment mechanism. The simulation results showed that the symmetric gas-blown mode can reduce slag entrapment when compared with the asymmetric mode for the 135°–11.7 Nl/min case; this will be favorable to control the cleanliness of the molten steel. Additionally, analysis of both liquid-level fluctuations and turbulent-kinetic-energy distributions further confirmed the advantages of the symmetric gas-blown mode for suppressing slag entrapment.