Influence of Electro-Emulsification on Desulfurization of Rejected Electrolytic Manganese Metal in Electroslag Remelting Process

A transient three-dimensional comprehensive numerical model was developed to clarify the effect of electro-emulsification on sulfur mass transfer during the electroslag remelting process of rejected electrolytic manganese metal scrap. The magnetohydrodynamic thermal two-phase flow and solidification behavior were numerically clarified. The kinetics module was established to assess the sulfur mass transfer rate between molten manganese metal and molten slag. Furthermore, variations of the alternating current (AC) magnitude and direction were taken into account. A reasonable agreement between the experimental and simulated results was observed. The surface area of molten droplets was shown to enlarge and it regularly fluctuates under the Lorentz force action. At the constant frequency of 50 Hz, the desulfurization rate rises from 54.7 to 71.0 pct when the AC root mean square (RMS) value of the AC is increased from 3000 to 4000 A, while at the constant AC RMS value of 3500 A, it dropped from 63.4 to 58.5 pct with the frequency increases from 5 to 500 Hz.