Mathematical modeling of the melting of sponge iron in a bath of non-reactive molten slag

Abstract

In this work a mathematical model was developed to predict the melting kinetics of an isolated sponge iron pellet in a bath of non-reactive liquid slag. The model represents an incipient stage of modeling of a real process in an industrial scale electric arc furnace. The model was validated by computing the melting time of a material in its own metallic bath and by computing the melting time of a material of different melting point than its bath. The effect of the physical properties of the pellet and slag as well as the fluiddynamic conditions of the metal bath were studied on both the melting kinetics of the pellets and energy consumption in the process. The study revealed that the convective heat transfer coefficient between the metal bath and the particle is an important parameter because if this value is increased, the melting time and the thickness of slag shell are drastically decreased.