Influence of a rotating electrode on the droplet formation and the refining effect in the electroslag-remelting process
By using a rotating electrode in the ESR process and the resulting centrifugal force, a smaller droplet size and a reduction of the metal film thickness at the electrode can be achieved. An associated improvement of the refining effect is to be expected. The remelting of a rotating electrode is a process innovation that has only been investigated to a very limited extent to date.
The current research project aims to understand the basic mechanisms related to the removal of non-metallic inclusions, the formation of a directional solidification structure and the formation of the marginal slag layer and to transfer it to a rotating metal-slag system.
The refining mechanisms as well as the inclusion distribution in the metal block shall be investigated and understood by a combination of experimental investigations at a pilot plant at the Institute of Metallurgical Process Technology and Metal Recycling and numerical simulations using the example of the nickel base alloy Alloy 718. The aim is to produce a material with an increased degree of purity and improved solidification structure in a reproducible manner.
The investigation of the flow with the aid of computer-aided simulations is divided into an investigation of the macroscopic flow and a subsequent modelling of the refining mechanisms during the process. A three-dimensional transient model for multiphase flow and magnetohydrodynamics is used to visualize the flow phenomena that occur.
Publications within the project
Schubert, C.; Rückert, A.; Pfeifer, H.: State of the art: Macroscopic modelling Approaches for the Description of multiphysics Phenomena within the Electroslag Remelting Process, Progress in Applied CFD – CFD2017, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Oil & Gas, Metallurgical and Process Industries, 30. Mai – 01. Juni 2017, Trondheim, Norway, S. 499–505
Schubert, C.; Rückert, A.; Pfeifer, H.: Numerical Simulation Approach for Modelling the ESR Process with a Rotating Electrode, Proceedings of the Liquid Metal Processing & Casting Conference 2017 – LMPC 2017, 10.–13. September 2017, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, S. 217–224
The project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under the reference number PF 394/24–1.