Coordinated analysis of multiple factors of argon blowing parameters on the effect of circulation flow rate in RH vacuum refining process

The circulation flow rate is widely used as a performance indicator to evaluate the refining efficiency of RH vacuum degassing process. In this study, the effects of Ar blowing angle and Ar blowing flow rate on a 180t RH vacuum degassing process were numerically analyzed, and the average circulation flow rate was optimized through utilizing a optimization design approach, and the optimal configuration of Ar blowing angle and Ar blowing flow rate to achieve maximum circulation flow rate was obtained. The results shows that the Ar blowing flow rate has a dominate effect on the circulation flow rate than Ar blowing angle. The circulation flow rate reaches its maximum value 0.2174 m3/min when the Ar blowing angle and blowing flow rate are set into 12.227° and 2.6196 m3/h, respectively. The circulation flow rate increases with the increase of Ar blowing flow rate regardless of different Ar blowing angle. The circulation rate decreases when the Ar blowing flow rate is about 2.7 m3/h. This study can provide further guidelines for setting appropriate Ar blowing parameters so as to improve the overall refining performance.