High Temperature Flows

Cont­act per­son: Dr.-Ing. Moritz Eickhoff

Fields of activities

Nume­ri­cal simu­la­ti­ons of metall­ur­gi­cal mel­ting pro­ces­ses inclu­ding magne­to­hy­dro­dy­na­mics and bubble or par­tic­le moti­on, phy­si­cal mode­ling of melts with water models, laser flow mea­su­re­ment techniques

Water model of a strip cas­ter (pho­to­grapher: Mar­tin Braun)

Areas of research

The know­ledge of flows during refi­ning and cas­ting of e.g. steel, cop­per and alu­mi­ni­um in metall­ur­gi­cal reac­tors (con­ver­ter, lad­le, tun­dish and cas­ting mould) is cru­cial for the opti­miza­ti­on of the qua­li­ty of semi-finis­hed and final pro­ducts. The opti­ons of flow mea­su­re­ments in metall­ur­gi­cal mels are very limi­t­ed due to the high tem­pe­ra­tures. The­r­e­fo­re flow and heat trans­fer phe­no­me­na have to be inves­ti­ga­ted using phy­si­cal and nume­ri­cal models.

Water models of metallurgical reactors

The kine­ma­tic vis­co­si­ties of metal melts and water are in the same area of magni­tu­de and for this reason their flow cha­rac­te­ristics are almost equal. The­r­e­fo­re, an inves­ti­ga­ti­on of melts using water models is pos­si­ble. The IOB has dif­fe­rent water model test stands available.

  • Tun­dish, cas­ting mould, lad­le and converter
  • Visua­li­sa­ti­on of flu­id flow with laser light sheet technique
  • 3D mea­su­re­ment of tur­bu­lent flu­id flow fields with DPIV and LDA Mea­su­re­ment of tem­pe­ra­tu­re and con­cen­tra­ti­on fields with LIF
  • Reten­ti­on time mea­su­re­ment and ana­ly­sis of mixing processes
  • Deter­mi­na­ti­on of par­tic­le dis­tri­bu­ti­on and pre­ci­pi­ta­ti­on cur­ves using Coul­ter Counter
  • Flu­id flow opti­mi­sa­ti­on by pas­si­ve flu­id flow manipulation
  • Mea­su­re­ment of water level move­ments with ultra­so­nic sensors

Numerical simulation

In par­al­lel to flow inves­ti­ga­ti­ons using phy­si­cal models, nume­ri­cal simu­la­ti­ons using CFD are car­ri­ed out. To impro­ve the accu­ra­cy of the cal­cu­la­ti­ons, the simu­la­ti­ons are first con­duc­ted for water flows and the boun­da­ry con­di­ti­ons are vali­da­ted against very accu­ra­te laser opti­cal mea­su­re­ments. Only after this vali­da­ti­on step the simu­la­ti­ons are con­duc­ted for mul­ti-pha­se, non-iso­ther­mal metal melts.

  • Simu­la­ti­on of flu­id flow of melts in metall­ur­gi­cal reac­tors (mul­ti-pha­se, non-isothermal)
  • Simu­la­ti­on of mixing pro­cess during lad­le changes
  • Elec­tros­lag Remel­ting (ESR) and Vacu­um Arc Remel­ting (VAR)– magne­to-hydro­dy­na­mic and ther­mo­tech­ni­cal phenomena
  • Simu­la­ti­on of flu­id flow as well as com­bus­ti­on and pyro­ly­sis in alu­mi­ni­um mel­ting furnaces
  • 3D Simu­la­ti­on of the VAR pro­cess in non-axi­sym­me­tric geometries

Services

Research projects

Ongoing research projects

Completed research projects