Influence of clogging of a T-shaped desulfurization lance on the flow field in a hot metal ladle

Lance injected desulphurization become ineffective when injection ports become obstructed. In this work, the difference of the flow fields between single and double hole injection was investigated by numerical simulations. When one of the openings in a T-shaped injection lance is blocked, a dead zone occurs in the ladle over approximately 1/4th of the volume, and there is not an active flow field on the surface of clogging side. To decrease clogging, industrial experiments examining different diameter lances were carried out. The results showed that clogging can be reduced by increasing the injection pressure and optimizing the injection hole diameter to be approximately 10 times the particle size of desulphurizer.