Study of Plume Eye in the Copper Bottom Blown Smelting Furnace

In the present study, the plume eye, which is a gas bubble plume generated by pushing away the upper layer liquid having a lower density and the exposure of the lower layer liquid which has a relatively higher density, was studied systematically in a bottom blown furnace model. A series of single lance experiments were carried out in a horizontal cylindrical furnace model to evaluate the effects of gas flowrate, lower layer thickness and upper layer thickness on the size of plume eye. The corresponding eye areas under different experimental conditions were measured. The results suggest that the eye size increases with increase of the gas flowrate and lower layer thickness. On the other hand, the eye size is reduced with increasing upper layer thickness. A mathematical model has been developed to predict the eye area in a horizontal cylindrical furnace by a single bottom blown lance.