Water Model Study on the Effect of Slag Layer on the Motion and Melting of Scrap Steel in Ladle

Scrap steel is a green renewable resource that can be recycled. Increasing the scrap ratio is bene-* ficial to saving energy and reducing carbon emissions, which is of great importance to realizing carbon neutralization in the iron and steel industry. In recent years, many plants have increased the use of scrap in steelmaking. However, the melting mechanism of scrap in refining ladle and the influence of the slag layer on the motion and melting of scrap are still unclear. In this paper, based on the principles of similarities of phase transformation number, the ice sphere is used to simulate steel scrap. Besides, the silicone oil with different viscosity is used to simulate the slag layer. In the experiment, the effects of slag layer and gas stirring intensity on the motion, melting and morphology evolution of ice samples were studied. The results showed that the morphology of ice spheres remained spherical during melting in the case without slag. For the cases with the slag layer, the melting rate of ice spheres in different fluids is different, resulting in irregular columnar morphology of ice. The larger the viscosity of the slag layer is, the slower the ice sphere moves on the liquid surface. The viscosity of the slag layer has no obvious effect on the melting time of the ice sphere, but the melting time in the case with the slag layer is lower than that in the case without slag. With the increase of gas flow rate, the slag eye area increases, and the melting time of the ice sphere decreases.