Simulation on flow field and mixing phenomenon in RH degasser with ladle bottom blowing

A numerical method has been employed to investigate the flow field and mixing characteristic in the Rheinsahl–Heraeus (RH) degasser with side–bottom blowing. The numerical results showed that stream flows in the up snorkel, the vacuum chamber, the down snorkel and the ladle form a large rectangular circulation zone in the RH degasser with side–bottom blowing, which can enhance the circulation flow rate effectively. For an RH with side–bottom blowing, when the included angle of the line between bottom blowing location and ladle centre and the line between two snorkels is zero, the circulation flow rate increases initially with increasing dimensionless distance between the bottom blowing location and the ladle centre and then decreases, while the mixing time increases with increasing dimensionless distance. On the other hand, when the dimensionless distance is 0·2, both the circulation flow rate and the mixing time decrease with the increasing included angle initially, reach their minimum value and then increase. The optimum values for the dimensionless distance and the included angle to achieve large circulation flow rate and small mixing time are 0·2 and π/4 in the present work.