Emulsification and Flow Characteristics in Copper Oxygen-Rich Side-Blown Bath Smelting Process

Abstract

Oxygen-rich side-blown bath smelting (OSBS) is a kind of copper smelting technology with high efficiency, energy-saving, and environment-friendly characteristics. However, emulsification and flow pattern as significant hydrodynamic parameters have been rarely studied for the OSBS process. The formation, size distribution of slag-matte droplets, and flow patterns of the melt in the industry were physically simulated and investigated by the water–oil system in this paper. Moreover, a mathematical model was proposed to estimate the interfacial area between the liquid slag and the emulsion droplets. The results reveal that the typical droplet diameter is in the range of 2 mm to 4 mm. The increase in gas velocity leads to decreasing droplet size and increasing the interfacial area. However, the increase of the injection angle tends to generate large droplets, which is not conducive to strengthen the OSBS process. The correlations of average diameter with Weber number are analyzed in the emulsified region. Besides, the flow patterns in the OSBS process can be divided into the chaotic zone and the quiet zone. In the industrial OSBS process, suitable gas velocity and a small injection angle will refine the copper matte droplets and accelerate the smelting process.