Simulation study on factors influencing the entrainment behavior of liquid steel as bubbles pass through the steel/slag interface

In this study, a water/silicone oil interface was used to simulate the steel/slag interface in a converter. A high-speed camera was used to record the entrainment process of droplets when air bubbles were passed through the water/silicone oil interface. Motion parameters of the bubbles and droplets were obtained using particle kinematic analysis software, and the entrainment rate of the droplets was calculated. It was found that the entrainment rate decreased from 29.5% to 0 when the viscosity of the silicone oil was increased from 60 mPa·s to 820 mPa·s in the case of bubbles with a 5 mm equivalent diameter passing through the water/silicone oil interface. The results indicate that increasing the viscosity of the silicone oil is conducive to reducing the entrainment rate. The entrainment rate increased from 0 to 136.3% in the case of silicone oil with a viscosity of 60 mPa·s when the equivalent diameter of the bubbles was increased from 3 mm to 7 mm. We therefore conclude that small bubbles are also conductive to reducing the entrainment rate. The force analysis results for the water column indicate that the entrainment rate of droplets is affected by the velocity of the bubble passing through the water/silicone oil interface and that the entrainment rate decreases with the bubble velocity.