Physical Simulation of Melt Lancing in a TROF Converter

Abstract

Nowadays, great attention is being paid to the recycling of copper-containing materials. Especially for the secondary copper-containing material treatment, rotary bevel drum-type furnaces are used. Such furnaces are mainly represented by the Kaldo furnace and the tilting rotating oxy-fuel (TROF) converter. In Russia, a number of such units are in use. The main advantage of these furnaces is a strap slag processing facility. Such slag is formed because of the high zinc and tin content in the feedstock. The ability of slag mixing allows one to obtain waste slag with a low copper content.

Due to the application of the unsubmerged blowing and a rotating smelting chamber, a material flow trajectory is difficult to be predicted. For a better understanding of the TROF converter operation and for finding possible ways for hydrodynamic improvement, cold simulation has been carried out.

The TROF converter cold model was constructed of plexiglas at a scale of 1:10 to a real furnace and equipped with a steel lance. The model may simulate furnace rotation, and the angles of furnace drum and lance may be set independently. During the experiments, the following parameters were varied: the angle of the model body, lance angle and position, volume of liquid in the model, and airflow rate. For simulation, water and different oils were used; blowing was performed by compressed air. To record the results, two 100 fps cams were used.

The obtained results permitted us to calculate the energy balance. The relationship between an airflow penetration depth and airflow rate was determined. In addition, a number of dead zones were detected in the furnace molten bath. By means of video recording, a torch size and a volume of displaced liquid were determined.