Trickle Flow Behaviors of Liquid Iron and Molten Slag in the Lower Part of Blast Furnace

In-situ observations of the liquid high carbon iron (HCl) and slag flows in coke bed was carried out by using high temperature X-ray fluoroscopy at 1 773 K. Along with the observation, 2-dimensional multiphase computational simulations of the liquid HCl and slag flows in the coke bed was carried out to investigate the effect of the slag on the HCl flow in the coke bed. The liquid HCl cannot pass through the coke bed with the coke diameter of 3-5 mm, however, the HCl can pass through the same size coke bed if the HCl comes into contact with the slag in the coke bed. When the HCl and slag contact each other on the coke surface, the contact angle of the HCl with slag decreases and its wettability increases. On the other hand, the slag's contact angle increases and it changes to non-wettable phase. Based on the experimental and simulation results, it is confirmed that the contact angle change due to the HCl-slag contact makes them pass though the narrow coke slit which is small enough to prevent both of the liquid phases from flowing down if they do not contact each other. Based on the capillary rise model, the driving force of the HCl penetration into the coke bed will be the energy reduction by extending area of the coke surface covered with the liquid HCl.