Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
JULIAN SZEKELY
A brief review is presented of the current state of extractive metallurgy, and it is shown that it is still
a significant part of the national economy. Then a definition is given of mathematical models, and the
general philosophy of modeling is discussed, together with the cost of models, hardware, and software
options. Several illustrative examples are given, drawn from aluminum electrolysis, flash smelting,
tundish operations, and plasma systems. The paper is concluded with the future modeling tasks facing
us; these include the more widespread applications of models to represent both existing and new
processing operations. It is stressed that models can play a major role in developing a holistic approach
to metals and materials processing, where the primary extraction and refining operations are combined
with the final processing steps.
II Primary
I Metal .
t '~1 ; Artii
~ - f i m i z a ~ ~ ,ntelli~;ina~
e
t
Crucial for Planning and
Interpreting Experimental Plant and
Studies in the Lab or in the Plant Physical Modeling Pilot Plant Data
Fig. 3 - - T h e balance between mathematical modeling, physical modeling,
Fig. 2 - - T h e role of mathematical models in materials processing. and plant-scale experimentation.
METALLURGICALTRANSACTIONSB VOLUME19B,AUGUST1988--529
E. Hardware
In recent years there have been major developments re-
garding computing hardware. As shown in Figure 7, the cost
of doing a given calculation has dramatically decreased, so
that we can now routinely tackle complex three-dimensional
transient heat and fluid flow problems. This figure also
shows that in terms of instructions/second 9 dollar one tends
to get rather better value from the smaller machines than
from the mainframes.
Table VI shows a listing of the principal hardware possi-
bilities, together with brief notes about costs and principal
applications. This is a very rapidly changing field, so this
table will have to be updated periodically.
The following general remarks may be applicable here.
Fig. 5 - Some well-studied basic physical situations in extractive-process
metallurgy. (a) Vertical gas injection into melts. (b) Horizontal gas injec-
The distinction between the "high end" of personal computers
tion into melts. (c) Gas jet impinging onto a melt. (d) Induction melting, (e.g., 386-based machines or the Mackintosh II) and the low
stirring. (e) Submerged resistance, arc melting, smelting. (f) Gas flow end of engineering workstations is becoming quite blurred.
through packed beds. At the present cost level, it is hardly appropriate to use
personal computers for serious engineering calculations. The
bulk of this work is now being done on engineering worksta-
tions, of which the MicroVAX II and III, the Sun III and IV,
-o
C
300
O
o
O0
I=--
(1)
o..
t./)
C
.9
Fig. 6 - - Some less well-understood basic physical situations in extractive- o
process metallurgy. (a) Atomization of a liquid metal stream with a gas jet. I=.
200 - [] Mainframe -
(b) Mechanical stirring of liquid metals. (c) Mold filling. (d) Emulsifi- 09
cation at a slag-metal interface. (e) Surface waves with liquid metals. c Micro
E
copper, and the like (a). Horizontally injected gas streams E~
into liquid metals (mattes) include the AOD process copper O
converting and the Noranda Process (b). Gas jets impinging
on liquids include basic oxygen steelmaking (c), while in- C
duction stirring and melting is extensively used in both the
steel and the aluminum industries (d). Submerged resistance
._o 100
and arc furnaces are extensively used in the extractive metal-
lurgy of ferroaUoys and in scrap melting (arcs) (e). Finally,
packed beds are used in blast furnace operations, while
fluidized beds are used in the roasting of copper sulfides and
in the flash drying of alumina (f).
Among the less well-understood systems, the atomization ~
o
of liquid metal streams with gas jets is a key step in powder
metallurgy (a). Mechanical stirring (quite well understood
in the contexts of chemical engineering practice) is being 0
used in aluminum and lead processing (b). Mold filling (c) 982 1987
is common to most nonferrous operations. The emulsifica-
tion of slag-metal systems is a key desired step in ladle met-
allurgy and highly undesirable in seeking to avoid copper Thousands of Dollars
losses in converting (d). Finally, surface waves are impor- Fig. 7 - - T h e approximate cost of performing one million instructions per
tant (and not well understood) in the context of aluminum second. - - mainframe-- microcomputers. Source: Business Week, Nov. 30,
smelting and steel tundish operations (e). 1987, p. 122.
Steel Shell ~
During the past decade we have seen a very marked evo-
lution in modeling efforts. Far from being a scientific curi- Fig. 8 - - S c h e m a t i c sketch of a Hall cell.
osity, successful modeling examples now fill the materials
and metallurgical literature. Indeed, one is faced with an
embarrassment of riches, and any selection has to be some- It follows that the optimization of the system will require
what arbitrary. We shall confine ourselves to four specific a good detailed, quantitative understanding of the complex
examples: two from the nonferrous metallurgy field, one interrelationships between the process parameters. A great
from steel processing, and one from a new technology. deal of useful work has been done in this area by Evans []9J
and Moreau, [2~ and there must be much unpublished mate-
A. Aluminum Electrolysis rial in the archives of aluminum companies. Here we shall
cite the very recent, excellent work of Wahnsiedler, t2'l with
As was discussed earlier, over five million tons of alumi-
Figure 9 showing a computed bath-metal interface, and
num are being produced annually, and all the primary pro-
Figure 10 depicting the computed velocity fields. As noted
cessing involves the use of a process whose principles were
earlier, these calculations require the solution of a set of
established over a hundred years ago: the electrolytic de- simultaneous three-dimensional electromagnetic force field
composition of alumina, dissolved in a molten salt, using a
and fluid-flow field equations. Finally, Figure 11 shows the
graphite anode and a graphite cathode, and collecting the
transient response of the interface height to an interruption
aluminum product in the molten state. During the past hun- in the anode current.
dred years, major advances have been made by vastly in- Work of this type has been very helpful in both the opti-
creasing the scale of the operation, the electric efficiency, mization of existing cell operations and in the development
and also the cell productivity. Mathematical modeling has of new cell technologies.
played an important role in these accomplishments.
Figure 8 shows a schematic sketch of a typical section of B. Modeling of the Flash Smelting Process
a Hall cell. It is seen that carbon anodes are being immersed
into a molten bath that consists of alumina dissolved in The classical technology for smelting sulfide copper ores
cryolite. The electrolytic decomposition of the alumina yields involved the use of large, unwieldy reverberatory furnaces
the desired aluminum product. The key issues in Hall cell with an extremely low surface area per unit volume and
design and operation are to increase the cell productivity and attendant very slow processing rate in terms of tons/unit
electric efficiency, and to reduce the specific power con- reactor volume-time. One potentially attractive technology,
sumption. One very important objective is to reduce the pioneered by the Outokompu Company of Finland, is the
anode-cathode distance and hence the cell voltage. Two flash smelting process sketched in Figure 12, where fine
major impediments must be overcome in order to accom- copper sulfide particles (together with a flux) are injected
plish this. into a furnace with oxygen-enriched air, forming a dust-laden
One of these is that, unlike the idealized sketch shown in turbulent jet.
Figure 8, the bath-metal interface is not flat and tends to be The inherent attractiveness of this system is due to the fact
unsteady. It follows that short-circuiting may occur if the that full advantage is being taken of the very high surface-
anode and the cathode are brought too close together without to-volume ratio of the fine ore particles; thus, a fast specific
effectively controlling the surface deformation and the sur- processing rate may be achieved. At the same time, for the
face waves. proper design and scale-up of these units it is essential to
The other point is that any Hall cell must be operated so have information on the temperature and concentration pro-
that a solidified shell of the bath is formed on the side walls; files and of the local reaction rates.
this "freeze" plays an important role in protecting the walls. The accurate modeling of this system is quite a complex
In order to maintain this "freeze," the resistive (Joule) heat- task, because it involves a reacting, two-phase gas-solid
ing due to the passage of the current between the electrodes mixture with several components. Convective and radiative
has to be matched with the heat loss through the walls. heat exchange is another complicating factor.
From the standpoint of transport fundamentals, Hall cell Useful modeling efforts in this field have been done by
operations represent a very complex, three-dimensional, un- Themelis and co-workers [22!and by Sohn and his group. [23l
steady state heat flow, fluid flow, and mass transfer problem Here we shall cite the work of Hahn and Sohn, which is
in a multi-phase (bath, metal, and gas bubbles) system. The the most comprehensive to date. Figure 13 shows an outline
situation is further complicated by the presence of strong of the concentration isopleths, while Figure 14 demonstrates
electromagnetic forces and very complex geometries. excellent agreement between the theoretical predictions and
/ . . ~ -o'~ ~ _~-~-~J
. _..~- ./--'~ I
:__-/f-~-~--~7;~/--~ ~ ::---~
:__=~- ........ " .......... /" - - - - ~ - - r L - - _ ~ : / - ~ ; 7~.......
.t ~ f ~-~ .I ~
.f...---:
/
-------_________ i: /
//j-//
Fig. 9 - - T h e computed bath-metal interface in a Hall cell, after Wahnsiedler. tLgt Reproduced by permission.
the experimental measurements. Work of this type is in- was discovered that tundishes can play a very important
valuable in scale-up, and is an excellent illustration of role in promoting the flotation of inclusion particles, and
how mathematical modeling can aid in the development of also in affecting the surface quality of the continuously
new technology. cast products.
In recent years, a great deal of work has been done in
C. Tundish Design Calculations mathematically modeling the three-dimensional fluid-flow
field and associated temperature field, tracer dispersion, and
The third example is taken from steel processing, and may inclusion behavior in tundishes, t24-27j Such mathematical
serve to illustrate how modeling can help to improve ex- modeling has usefully complemented physical modeling t28J
isting technologies, and also lead to the development of and a very limited number of plant-scale investigations.
new concepts. Most tundishes employed today use dams, weirs, and baf-
Figure 15 shows a schematic sketch of a tundish serving fles to regulate the flow. But there is still a surprising num-
as a buffer vessel between the ladle and a continuous casting ber of very poor tundish designs in current operation, much
machine. Such tundishes are also used in aluminum, copper, to the detriment of product quality. Mathematical modeling
and other metals processing operations, albeit on a different can play a key role in determining the optimal tundish de-
scale. A common feature of most conventional tundishes sign and the optimal location of the weirs and baffles.
employed in steel technology is that they are essentially a Figure 16 shows the computed velocity fields in a central
horizontal trough, say a few meters long, about a meter wide vertical slice of a typical steel tundish, the key parameters
and a meter deep. Steel is being poured in from a ladle at one of which are listed in Table VIII. Here, (a) depicts the flow
end or at the center, while one or more steel streams are pattern in the absence of flow-control devices, and a strong
being discharged into the mold of a continuous casting ma- recirculating flow field occupying a significant part of the
chine through exit nozzles located at the bottom. tundish is clearly seen. (b) shows the effect of a dam and a
The originally envisioned function of tundishes was to act weir in controlling the flow, and the improvement is readily
as a buffer between the ladle and the continuous casting apparent. Finally, (c) illustrates the effect of placing a strong
machine, evening out the flow changes brought about by magnetic field on the tundish, which is seen to effectively
variations in the metal head in the ladle. Subsequently it streamline the flow.
GA-19457,12
- ,... ... \ / ,- /
i
> > -
/
_ ~ ~ "-. ,,,.
1
, \
\ x. I ;
(a)
Fig. 1 0 - - T h e computed velocity field in the metal pad of a Hall cell, after Wahnsiedler. u91 Reproduced by permission.
This behavior is perhaps more readily discerned using the The sketch in (b) represents a transferred arc plasma,
concept of tracer dispersion or the "C" curves given in where the arc is struck both between the electrodes, and also
Figure 17. These represent the concentration of a tracer between the central electrode and a metal surface or bath
which has been added to the inlet stream in a stepwise upon which the plasma impinges. Plasmas offer very inter-
manner at the outlet, as a function of the dimensionless esting opportunities in extractive metallurgy, through pro-
residence time; the latter is defined as the ratio: tundish viding an electrically derived heat source of very high
volume/volumetric flow rate of the metal. temperature and intensity. Initially, there were many ideas
It is seen that in the absence of flow control devices there regarding the use of plasmas that ranged from iron oxide
is very marked short-circuiting and by-passing, as evi- reduction and the smelting of sulfide ores, and the recovery
denced by a sharp tracer peak at 0 ~ 1. This is somewhat of zinc from electric furnace wastes, to the melting of ti-
ameliorated by the use of inserts or baffles, but plug flow tanium scrap, stainless steel scrap, and the like.
would be approached only through the use of an externally The consensus that is emerging, and which has been well
imposed magnetic field. articulated in a recent NMAB report, t3~ is that the ideal use
of plasmas in an extractive metallurgy context will be for the
melting of refractory metals of high specific value (e.g.,
D. Plasma Systems titanium, stainless steel scrap, etc.) where emphasis is on
Figure 18 shows a sketch of two types of plasma torches product cleanliness; where there is an absolute need for a
used in materials processing applications.[291 Here, (a) repre- high-temperature (say above 1800 to 2000 K) heat source;
sents a nontransferred arc, where an arc is being struck and where a very high thermal efficiency is not mandatory.
between two electrodes and the resultant Joule heating and The use of plasmas for the more conventional smelting
electromagnetic forces produce a stream of hot gas with applications (e.g., iron oxide reduction, lead smelting, etc.)
temperatures up to 15 kK, which is then used to heat and seems to be rather less promising; however, there may
melt metallic substances. Such torches are also used for be some niche-type applications, especially in connection
spraying and for the synthesis of fine ceramic particles. with recycling.
GA-19457.13
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,. i ,,
", ~ t /
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\ / Ii
1. 1 X \ \
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,...~ "---.,-- ---..,, ~ ---,~ ---" ----.,, ~ ~ .--- ~ " ,,._. ~ .,,__- -.,~--- ___...,,-__ ,,.___
,/
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BATH FLOWPATTERN
DI55G3 T:8.5 SEC
(b)
Fig. 10 Cont.--The computed velocity field in the metal pad of a Hall cell, afierWahnsiedler, t~9~Reproduced by permission.
In recent years there have been major advances in the been successful in that the theoretical predictions were
modeling of plasma systems, including both transferred and found to be in good agreement with experimental mea-
nontransferred arcs. 131-351 These modeling exercises have surements. As an example, Figure 19 shows a comparison
between the theoretically predicted and the experimentally
0.136 I I I I I I I
measured temperature fields in a nontransferred a r c . [34]
Figure 20 shows a comparison between measurements and
0.132
predictions in a transferred arc. [35] The agreement in both
cases appears to be quite good, indicating significant
progress in this field.
O. 1 2 8
Our ability to model these plasma systems provides
an excellent base upon which to build new materials-
"~ 0 . 1 2 4
processing technology.
"~ 0 . 1 2 0
m
V. DISCUSSION
0.116
In this paper, we have sought to make the point that
0.112 I I I J I ~ I
mathematical modeling is being established as an extremely
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 valuable and cost-effective tool for both process opti-
Time since interruption, sec mization and new process development. The deployment of
this technique is very timely because of the ready availa-
Interrupted Anode Interface Peak Height bility and marked decrease in the cost of both hardware
Fig. l l - - T h e computed transient response of the bath-metal interface in and software.
a Hall cell after a current interruption, after Wahnsiedler.t'gJ Reproduced by During the past few years, major successes have been
permission. reported with modeling, not only in the mechanistic model-
~
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0.6
0.4
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.
5
.
0.5 14
. .
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Contours of O 2 Concentration
1.2
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,
1.5
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2.0 2.5
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1.1
1.08
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1.2 1.07
0.2
27 ;
0.0
0.0 10 5 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Contours of Tg (K)
1.0
0.8 1600-~.~ 1750 1600
0.2 ~ ~ 0 0 !700
300-450 "It,..4 13oo 17so 16so-17oo
0.0 ~" : ~ , " " ~ ~ ~ ~
0.0 1000 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
0 I
-- I I
02 I
Velocity Vectors at .15Y, No Field, case (o)
Vma x = 2.4 m/s
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
(a)
~o ~ T O = 463 K (a)
I \ S02
2 : . . . . ", ~ _ - ,, t
25
O2(Mex O y'l
(3 02
v I I I I -- I I I I
!
9 DAM WITH SLOT ~ b ~ (2,x) Z= 13mm
x TWO WEIRS ONE DAM
i0000 ~ ' ~ x ~ (3,r2) Z=25mm --
- "".~'N~"~ (4,+) Z=37mm
0.06
Cex
I~ ' uINCLINED WALLS
7500 i "~ (5'*)
Z=49mm-
0.04 dC.% .I '~jwithmagnetic 5000
; o,
" ~ i eose (b).
2500
0.02
// '\
'-... 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15
0
0 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 I0.00 RADIAL DISTANCE ( r a m )
Fig. 1 9 - - A comparison between the experimentally measured and the
TIME (min.) theoretically predicted temperature profiles in a nontransferred arc system.
Fig. 1 7 - - T h e tracer dispersion, or "C" curves, for the tundish system for
various flow control arrangements.
B. The Use of Models in New Process Development
melting hearths or superalloy-pouring systems supplying It is axiomatic that as the United States metals producers
atomizing nozzles, have hardly received any attention. are in the commodity business, paying United States wages,
The main barrier to the implementation of these concepts they will not be able to survive unless they are the tech-
tends to be the nonavailability of suitably trained personnel nology leaders, or at least among the technology leaders, in
(even the most user-friendly computational package requires the world. This mandates the need for a much more rapid
experienced users in this field!). Another key problem is the rate of developing new products and new processes than has
lack of appreciation of these techniques by senior manage- been the case in the past.
ment, many of whom had their professional engineering There is a critical need to promote recycling (the alumi-
careers in the pre-computer age. One should stress here that num companies have been quite successful here), the
there are many outstanding opportunities here, with a very recovery of valuable by-products from waste streams and
impressive potential for return on investment. perhaps most important of all, the development of new mar-
kets and new product lines. Mathematical models can have
a major effect during the whole sequence of the develop-
ment process. Initially, models can help in assessing the
potential feasibility of a concept, then will provide guidance
regarding the measurements that have to be taken and their
GH --- ~ i Arc jet
interpretation, and finally in the scale-up process.
Nozzle
a) Plasm,, arc Jet (torch), non-lransfe~ed mode
Fig. 18--Typical examples of plasma torches: (a) nontransferred arc, Fig. 2 0 - - A comparison between the experimentally measured and the
(b) transferred arc. theoretically predicted temperature profiles in a transferred arc system.
/
I D I = D e c i s i o n Points
Fig. 21 - - T h e metals and materials processing sequence, also showing key decision points.