3D Modeling of the Aggregation of Oxide Inclusions in a Liquid Steel Ladle: Two Numerical Approaches

The ladle treatment of liquid steel is mainly responsible for the steel cleanliness, since it generates as well as eliminates most of the oxide inclusions. Today, the combination of computational fluid dynamics and population balance modeling makes the numerical simulation of this complex three‐phase reactor possible. First, the comprehensive three‐dimensional turbulent multiphase flow model is developed to study the behavior of argon bubbles in liquid steel based on the geometry and operating conditions corresponding to the real industrial process. This simulation is validated by comparing the calculated mixing time with the experimental value predicted from ladle sampling. Then, the balanced equation for a population of oxide inclusions with aggregation mechanism is coupled with the hydrodynamic modeling. To obtain the solution of this equation two approaches are used: the classes method (CM) and the quadrature method of moments (QMOM). The simulation results show the equivalence of these methods and their respective advantages are presented.