On the numerical modeling of the process of melt bubbling with a hydrocarbon mixture in a liquid-phase reduction reactor

A numerical modeling of the melt bubbling with methane in a liquid-phase reduction reactor for commercially pure iron (ARMCO-iron) was performed using CFD modeling approaches implemented in the ANSYS Fluent (VOF model) and ANSYS CFX (Euler dispersed phase model) software packages. The studies were conducted to explore the temperature field on the reactor lining and to check the adequacy of numerical approaches for describing high-temperature bubbling processes in metallurgy. The thermal state of the reactor lining was analyzed, the characteristics of gas-liquid interaction and flow structure were studied. The results showed that the simulated bubbling mode corresponds to a developed bubble flow with a gas filling of about 23 %, which is confirmed by experimental data for similar conditions. The maximum temperature of the inner surface of the reactor lining does not exceed 1600 °C, which is significantly lower than the permissible level for the refractory material used. The obtained results confirm the operability of the reactor design and the effectiveness of numerical modeling methods for predicting its operating modes.The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 24-29-00421, https://rscf.ru/project/24-29-00421/.