Drag and non-drag force influences in numerical simulations of metallurgical ladles

The modeling of metallurgical gas stirred ladles involves the interaction between several different phases with effects that, in many cases, have been considered in the literature. However, the way in which the different non-drag effects influence the behavior of this system is not clear. In this paper we analyze how numerical results are affected when the parameters used in modeling non-drag forces (such as virtual mass, lift, and turbulent dispersion force) are varied. Other effects such as the increment in turbulence due to the bubbles, a deformable free surface, and the influence of the bubble size were also considered. The knowledge of the way in which each physical phenomenon modifies the behavior of the main variables of the system allowed the fitting of experimental data in a variety of conditions. We conclude that a gas stirred ladle can be properly represented when the non-drag effects analyzed here are included, and give suitable values for the different parameters considered. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.