Experimental and numerical modelling of mass transfer in a refining ladle

Mass transfer between liquid steel and slag is an important physical phenomenon during secondary metallurgy for prediction of the chemical reaction rate and adjustment of liquid steel composition. We study this phenomenon at ambient temperature with a water experiment and perform Direct Numerical Simulations, aiming to reproduce an argon-gas bottom-blown ladle. First, we measure the evolution of the time-averaged open-eye area as a function of the air flow rate. Both simulation and experiment agree relatively well and are close to other water experiments in the literature. Secondly, the mass transfer of thymol between water and oil is investigated. The experimental results show that two mass transfer regimes can be observed. The regime change coincides with atomization of the oil layer resulting in the continuous formation of oil droplets in the water whenever the air flow rate rises above a critical value. The numerical results for the mass-transfer rate or Sherwood number are obtained at small Schmidt numbers and are then extrapolated to the experimental Schmidt number of 1480. A good agreement with experiment is observed although with large error bars. The Sherwood numbers at the two largest simulated flow rates show a steep increase.