Computational Investigation of Inclusion Removal in the Steel-Refining Ladle Process

In a steel-refining ladle, the properties of manufactured steel can be notably degraded due to the presence of excessive inclusions. Stirring via gas injection through a porous plug is often used as part of the steel-refining process to reduce these inclusions. In this paper, 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is used to analyze transient multiphase flow and inclusion removal in a gas-stirred ladle. The effects of gas stirring with bubble-inclusion interaction are analyzed using the Euler–Euler approach for multiphase flow modeling, while the effects of inclusions aggregation and removal are modeled via a population balance model (PBM).