Authors: L.H. Gunnewiek, S. Tullis
Abstract
Understand'rag the mechanisms of heat and mass transfer in the bath of an electric arc reduction
furnace is a necessary step in developing a strategy to improve the efficiency of the furnace. However, the
high temperature environment in the furnace limits the ability to collect the data necessary to study the
smelting process in detail. In an effort to achieve a better understandin_ of the complex processes oceumng
in the bath, a numerical model of a bath has been developed using a cornmereial computational fluid
dyrmaucs (CFD) code. The model predicts heat and fluid flow in the bath for both immersed electrode and
open arc operation, and heat transfer to feedstock and fluxes added to the bath.
In general, the results show that the flow in the bath is fully three dimensional and well mixed with a
relatively uniform temperature dismbution throughout the bath. Predictions of heat transfer to the feedstock
and fluxes added to the bath indicate that heating up to the bath temperature is rapid, and that the separation
of lighter and heavier density materials is also rapid. The separation of the reactants is not desirable. This
paper presents some typical results of temperature and flow distributions in a bath for both immersed
electrode and open arc operation, and describes how the model can be used to supplement and guide a full
scale experimental program aimed at improving the efficiency of the furnace.
