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A pragmatical physics-based model for predicting ladle lifetime

Abstract

In this paper we develop a physics-based model for lining erosion in steel ladles. The model predicts the temperature evolution in the liquid slag, steel, refractory bricks, and outer steel shell of the ladle. The flow of slag and steel is due to forced convection induced by inert gas injection,
vacuum treatment (extreme bubble expansion), natural convection, and waves caused by the gas stirring. The lining erosion takes place by dissolution of refractory elements into the steel or slag.
The mass and heat transfer coefficients inside the ladle during gas stirring are modelled based on wall functions which take the distribution of wall shear velocities as a critical input. The wall shear velocities are obtained from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for a sample of scenarios, spanning out the operational space, and a model is developed using curve fitting. The model is capable of reproducing both thermal and erosion evolution well. Deviations between model predictions and industrial data are discussed. The model is fast and has been tested successfully in a ‘semi-online’ application. The model source code is available to the public at [https://github.com/SINTEF/refractorywear].

Category

Academic article

Client

  • EC/H2020 / 870130

Language

English

Author(s)

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Industry / Process Technology
  • Unknown

Year

2024

Published in

Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM)

ISSN

0038-223X

Publisher

The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

Volume

124

Issue

3

Page(s)

93 - 110

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