CFD simulation gas-liquid flow in a copper converter with bottom air injection

Peirce-Smith converters (PSC) are chemical reactors where copper matte reacts with air. A conventional PSC is a long horizontal cylinder where air is injected laterally into the cooper bath through submerged tuyeres. In these PSC, air is injected at high velocities to obtain an adequate mixing of the copper bath and to avoid tuyere blockage. An alternative PSC configuration uses top blowing of air accompanied by gentle nitrogen bottom stirring. In this work, the direct bottom injection of air at low inlet velocity was studied by means of transient multiphase 3D CFD numerical simulations considering three blowing conditions. The kappa-epsilon turbulence model and the volume of fluid model (VOF) were used in order to model the turbulent nature of the flow and to deal with the multiphase flow. Special attention was paid to the air bubbles formation and its effect on the copper bath mixing. The dynamic behavior of turbulent kinetic energy and the average velocity of the copper matte were analyzed. The numerical simulations suggest that the relationship between air inlet velocity and bath mixing is non linear. However, using the air bottom injection at low velocities, the obtained copper bath nominal velocity is similar to that reported in a conventional PSC.