DFG Project PF 394/24–1

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.