A mathematical modelling study of fluid flow and mixing in full-scale gas-stirred ladles

Abstract
A full-scale, three-dimensional, transient mathematical model for application to gas-stirred ladles was developed. Multiphase aspects were accounted for by employing the Lagrangian Discrete Phase Model (DPM) in describing the bubble plume and the Eulerian Volume of Fluid (VOF) model for tracking the free surface of the melt. The standard kε (SKE) model was used for modelling turbulence. Further research is required to refine the turbulence modelling approach, but validation experiments showed that the present approach yielded accurate information on bulk fluid flow and mixing in the ladle. The resulting model is easily generalised and computationally efficient.