Numerical analysis and industrial practice of single-flow post-combustion oxygen lance with high oxygen supply intensity

The oxygen supply process is a vital operation in converter steelmaking, which is to inject oxygen and kinetic energy into the liquid bath with an oxygen lance. Herein, a single-flow post-combustion oxygen lance (SF-PCL) with four primary holes and six secondary holes was designed to increase the oxygen supply intensity of a 60-ton converter in a steel plant. The attenuation and coalescence behaviors of supersonic jets for the conventional four-hole oxygen lance (COL) and the newly designed SF-PCL were studied by numerical simulation. And then, their metallurgical effects were verified by industrial practice. The simulation results indicated that the SF-PCL effectively suppresses the attenuation and coalescence of supersonic jets as well as simultaneously increases both the impact area and penetration depth. In industrial practice, compared with the COL, the newly designed SF-PCL increases the oxygen supply intensity from the original 4.89 m3 (t·min)−1 to 5.43 m3 (t·min)−1, rises the dephosphorization rate by 1.4%, shortens the blowing time by 34 s, reduces the ferrous charges consumption by 7 kg t−1 and decreases the total iron content in final slag by 0.85%.