Physical Modeling Study on Combined Side and Top Blowing AOD Refining Process of Stainless Steel: Back-attack Phenomenon of Gas Streams with Horizontal Side Blowing and Its Influence on Erosion and Wear of Refractory Lining

The back-attack phenomenon of the gas side blowing streams and its influence on the erosion and wear of the refractory lining during the combined side and top blowing AOD refining process of stainless steel were investigated on a water model unit of a 120t AOD converter. Sufficiently full kinetic similarity between the model and its prototype was maintained. The influences of the gas flow rates for side and top blowing, the side tuyere position and number were examined. The preliminary industrial experiments were conducted. The results indicated that the presence of a gas top blowing jet and using of multiple tuyeres did not change the basic features of the back-attack, but could give it some distinctive behaviors. The back-attack could indeed bring about the evident and uneven erosion and wear of the lining. On the back-attack, the gas streams of the main tuyeres had a decisive role, and the subtuyere streams showed a certain suppression and alleviation effect. At a given tuyere number and position, its frequency and pressure and the total average pulse number in per unit time in the processes of this work increased with an increase in the gas side blowing rate. At a given tuyere position and gas side blowing rate, the back-attack and its influence on the erosion and wear of the lining enhanced with decreasing the tuyere number (increasing the gas flow rate for single tuyere). The gas top blowing jet could make the back-attack become more uniform and its frequency decrease, and its intensity and the total average pulse number increase; and it could reduce the eroded and worn rate of the lining at a given tuyere number and position and gas side blowing rate. The increased amplitude of the back-attack intensity and the extension of the damaged area of the lining caused by the buoyancy in a combined blowing were smaller and lower than those in a simple side blowing. As another important reason resulted in the back-attack and the erosion and wear of the lining, the effectiveness of the circulatory motion of the liquid in a combined blowing is different from that in a simple side blowing. At a given tuyere number, properly increasing the angle between each tuyere could be beneficial to alleviating the back-attack and to slowing down the erosion and wear of the lining. Under the conditions of this work, the back-attack actions and the lining eroded and worn extents and rates with 7 tuyeres and 22.5 degrees or 6 tuyeres and 27 were all gentler and lower than those with the other tuyere equipments and arrangements. The results obtained from the physical modeling studies on the refining process were reliable, believable and valid. Suitably increasing the angle between each tuyere of the 120t AOD converter could raise the life of its lining by a big margin, and remarkably improve the technical and economic indications of the process.