Eulerian Multifluid Simulations of Dispersed Gas–Liquid–Liquid Flow in a Shallow Vessel

Dispersed gas–liquid–liquid flows in shallow vessels are widely encountered in steel-making and refining processes. In the present work, dynamics of dispersed gas–liquid flow generated by multiple meandering bubble plumes is investigated using the Euler–Euler model under high gas throughput in a 6:1 scaled-down model of Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) under cold-flow conditions. The effect of interphase coupling forces on gas volume fraction distribution is analyzed, and predictions are compared with the corresponding measurements. Further, the computational model is extended to the Eulerian multifluid model to incorporate an immiscible liquid layer (slag/oil). The implementation of three-phase (air–oil–water) momentum exchange forces is discussed in detail. Experiments are performed to measure “open-eye” formation for different oil layer heights and mass flow rates and used to validate the corresponding simulations. We found that the turbulent dispersion force significantly influences the distribution of the dispersed phase and is responsible for breaking the air jet into meandering bubble plumes. The incorporation of drag, lift, and turbulent dispersion forces led to a reasonable agreement with corresponding measured time-averaged gas holdup and local gas volume fraction fluctuations for different mass flow rates. Further, oil layer distribution predicted by the present Eulerian multifluid model showed a reasonable agreement with the corresponding measurements under different blowing conditions. We found that the interplay of inertial force exerted by the upward motion of water and the gravitational force exerted by the oil layer primarily governs the spatial distribution of the oil layer based on different blowing conditions considered in the present work.