Effect of Separation Angle and Nozzle Radial Position on Mixing Time in Ladles with Two Nozzles

Chemical, thermal and mechanical homogenization of both slag and steel during the ladle furnace process depends on the design of the gas injection system in gas bottom stirred ladles. In the past, a large number of variables have been investigated, nevertheless due to the importance of the slag layer during the process, it has been incorporated in water modeling studies in more recent investigations.
In large industrial size ladles is common to use two porous plugs. The configuration of the injection system with two porous plugs requires optimization of both nozzle radial position and nozzle separation angle. In this work the effect of nozzle radial position, nozzle separation angle, gas flow rate and slag thickness on mixing time has been investigated using a water model. The effect of tracer concentration on mixing time was also explored. It is shown that a separation angle of 60 degrees provides the best mixing efficiency.