Simulation and analysis of O₂–CaO jet behavior with different shrouding fuel mediums in electric arc furnace steelmaking

The O₂–CaO jet with shrouding combustion flame demonstrates some advantages in quick melting and effective slag foaming by delivering lime powder deeply into the molten bath. Combining the discrete particle model and the eddy dissipation concept model with the detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms (GRI-Mech 3.0), computational fluid dynamics models of the O₂–CaO jet with different shrouding fuel mediums injection were developed. Firstly, the results of the numerical simulation were validated by the measured data of cold test for O₂–CaO injection. Then, the interaction between the particles and the gas jet of the O₂–CaO jet and the effect of shrouding fuel medium species on the fluid flow characteristics of the O₂–CaO jet were analyzed. Results show that the CaO particles can be effectively heated by the shrouding high-temperature combustion flame and compared with the O₂–CaO jet without shrouding gas, the potential core length was increased about 2.5, 3.3 and 4.3 times by the shrouding flame generated from CO, CH₄ and C₃H₈. And with shrouding CH₄ and C₃H₈ injection, the CaO particles can be clustered together in a long distance, which would be helpful to improve the utilization efficiency of CaO particles.