Development of a Numerical Model for the Heat and Mass Transport in an Electric Arc Furnace Freeboard

The topic of this thesis is the development of a numerical model to investigate the heat and mass transport in an EAF freeboard. Some of the challenges presently faced by European steelmakers are increasing costs for raw materials and energy, as well as strict environmental policies. These can be addressed by improving the energy efficiency of the EAF steelmaking process by reducing off-gas and cooling losses. This can be achieved by increasing the degree of combustion of CO and H2 in the furnace freeboard. A better understanding of the mechanisms that cause unwanted emissions during the steelmaking process can also help to develop new methods to reduce pollutants. The long term motivation behind the topic of this thesis is therefore to create a numerical EAF model with which the influence of process innovations on the fluid flow field, energy transport and chemical reactions within the freeboard of an electric arc furnace can be analysed. At this stage, the main objective is to qualitatively investigate the influence of the arc region on the amount of postcombustion within the freeboard. The effect of a change in the foamy slag height on the resulting amount of post-combustion is also investigated.