Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 113 (2020) 110041

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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

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Physical modelling of dynamic evolution of metallurgical slag foaming T

⁎
Ruifang Wang, Bo Zhang , Chengjun Liu, Maofa Jiang
Key Laboratory for Ecological Metallurgy of Multimetallic Ores (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The dynamic evolution of metallurgical slag foaming is vital for the efficiency and safety of the metallurgical
Slag foaming processes. Based on the similarity principle via Morton number, the dynamic evolution of Basic Oxygen Furnace
Foam structure (BOF) slag foaming was studied through physical modelling in this investigation. The steady-state structure
Dynamics evolution characteristics and the dynamic evolution of slag foaming were analyzed under the different of superficial gas
Superficial gas velocity
velocity (us). It was found that the foaming height increased first and consequently decreased as the us increased,
while the four different types of steady-state foam structure characteristics were summarized and the dynamic
evolution of slag foaming was analyzed. At 0.08 mm∙s−1 < us ≤ 0.50 mm∙s−1, the foam system presented two-
layer structure (called Partial Foaming I), while the foaming height increased linearly with the us increased;
following gas supply interruption, the foam decayed at a uniform rate. At 0.50 mm∙s−1 < us < 10.00 mm∙s−1,
the foam structure evolved into the Entire Foaming I, which was stacked by the spherical bubbles and the
deformed bubbles; also, the decaying rate of the foam decreased as the liquid level decreased following the gas
supply stop. When us was 0.60 mm∙s−1, the foam had the maximum stability, because its structure was in close
proximity to densest packing of spherical bubbles. At 10.00 mm∙s−1 ≤ us ≤ 16.67 mm∙s−1, the foam structure of
Entire Foaming II occurred, while the liquid level fluctuated sharply due to the poor stability of the polyhedral
bubbles with high size at the upper levels. Moreover, the foaming height reached the peak value; in addition, the
liquid level rapidly decreased due to the polyhedral bubble breakage after gas supply interruption. At
16.67 mm∙s−1 < us < 53.33 mm∙s−1, the foam structure evolved into the Partial Foaming II, due to the strong
disturbance of high-speed air flow, while the foaming height decreased with the rise of us. As the us further
increased, the high-speed gas flow penetrated the liquid phase, leading to the foam disappearance.

1. Introduction quantitatively characterize the slag foaming [7–13], as expressed in Eq.

Slag foaming is a dynamic and complex process of multiphase in-
teraction, which plays an important role during the Basic Oxygen
Furnace (BOF) steelmaking process [1]. Moderate slag foaming is
beneficial to the kinetic conditions improvement of chemical reactions
[2], smelting effectiveness and energy utilization efficiency [3]. How-
ever, insufficient or excessive slag foaming might deteriorate the
smelting effectiveness and even induce severe accidents such as
splashing outside the furnace [4,5], consequently resulting in the
human injuries and equipment damage [6]. Therefore, it is vital for
efficient and safety production to precisely control the slag foaming of
metallurgical processes.
Slag foaming has attracted research attention in recent years.
During actual metallurgical production, the foaming height (Δh) is a
key parameter to control foaming, which is usually applied to
(1). In fact, Δh reflects the gas fraction of the foam system, an important
parameter of the foam structure. When the gas fraction exceeds a cer-
tain value, the foam structure will evolve from the spherical foam to
polyhedral foam.
Δh = h − h 0 (1)
where, Δh is the foaming height (m), h is the liquid level of steady-state
(m) and h0 is the initial height of liquid height (m).
Due to the characteristics of high temperature, multiphase and dy-
namics, it is extremely difficult to observe and sample slag foaming
during smelting. Cold physical modeling has evolved into the main
method to study slag foaming [9–13]. In slag foaming studies, the su-
perficial gas velocity (us) usually is defined as the ratio of the gas flow
rate to the cross-sectional area of the container, as presented in Eq. (2).
Guthrie et al. [14] indicated that the us played a decisive role in the

⁎
Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory for Ecological Metallurgy of Multimetallic Ores (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819,
China.
E-mail address: zhangbo@smm.neu.edu.cn (B. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2020.110041
Received 16 September 2019; Received in revised form 12 December 2019; Accepted 8 January 2020
Available online 09 January 2020
0894-1777/ © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
R. Wang, et al.
foaming height through the cold physical modelling method. Ghag et al.
[10] conducted foaming experiments with compressed air as the gas
source along with glycerol solution to simulate metallurgical slags. The
results indicated that Δh increased with the increase of us. A model of
slag foaming was developed by Wu et al. [9,11], which adopted the
silicone oil to simulate metallurgical slag. The model revealed that Δh
increased first and consequently decreased as us increased. Many pre-
vious studies [9–11,14] had demonstrated that us had a significant
impact on Δh, but these were merely focused on the steady-state of slag
foaming. In fact, the slag foaming is a complex dynamic evolution
process [15,16]. Nevertheless, the generation → development-stabi-
lity → decaying process of slag foaming was hardly reported in previous
studies.
us = Q A (2)
where, us is the superficial gas velocity (m/s), Q is the gas flow rate
(m3/s) and A is the cross-sectional area of the container (m2).
At present, BOF has become the main steelmaking method. The BOF
slag is mainly composed of CaO-SiO2-FeOx-MgO with the functions of
removing harmful elements, absorbing inclusions, and improving heat
transfer, etc. The foaming process of BOF slag arose from the huge
carbon oxide is very typical. Furthermore, the splashing accident
caused by the improper foaming of BOF slag remains to be resolved.
Thus, the foaming phenomenon of BOF Slag will be the research em-
phasis in this study.
The dynamic evolution of slag foaming highly depends on the cor-
responding structure characteristics (bubble shapes, bubble sizes, bub-
bles numbers and gas fraction). In this investigation, the structure
characteristics of foaming slag were analyzed, while the dynamic evo-
lution of slag foaming process was explored under the different con-
ditions of us through physical modelling. The research results could
provide reference for the accurate control of slag foaming.
2. Material and methods
In present experiments, the glycerol solution was employed to si-
mulate BOF slag. The physical properties of the BOF slag and the ex-
perimental glycerol solution are listed in Table 1 [17]. Considering that
the physical properties (viscosity and surface tension) had a significant
influence on slag foaming behavior [9,18–20], the Morton (Mo) number
was selected to meet the similarity between the BOF slag and glycerol
solution. Its calculation method is expressed in Eq. (3). The Mo number
of experimental glycerol solution was 6.7 × 10−4, located within the
Mo number range of the BOF slag, as presented in Fig. 1.
Mo = (μ4 g ) (σ 3ρ) = (v 4ρ3g ) σ 3 (3)
where, μ and v are the viscosity (Pa∙s) and kinematic viscosity (m2∙s−1)
of the liquid phase, respectively; ρ is the density of liquid phase
(kg∙m−3); σ is the liquid surface tension (N∙m−1) and g is the gravity
acceleration (m∙s−2).
The schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus is presented
in Fig. 2. The plexiglass vessel had a bottom length of 0.05 m and a
height of 1.00 m. The initial height of glycerol solution (volume:
250 mL) was 0.10 m to create the slag foaming per experiment. Com-
pressed air was injected into glycerol solution through a silicon oxide
filter dispersion (pore size: (16–30) × 10−6 m) above the gas chamber.
The flow rate (0–8000 mL/min) and pressure (0.2 MPa) of the com-
pressed air were controlled through a rotameter and a pressure
Table 1
Physical properties of BOF slag and glycerol solution.
Temperature (oC) Density (kg∙m−3)
Slag 1350 2800–3200
Glycerol solution 25 1209
2
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 113 (2020) 110041
Fig. 1. Mo number of Basic Oxygen Furnace slag.
stabilizing valve, respectively. The us increased from zero, until in-
creased to no foaming phenomenon. A ruler was attached to the outside
wall of the vessel to measure both Δh and bubble size. The videos were
taken to record the foaming process of the glycerol solution with a
camera (type: Nikon-3400; Japan), from which the Δh could be directly
obtained according to the ruler attached on the vessel after experi-
ments. In addition, a video captures was saved from the video, and then
imported into the Image-Pro Plus 6.0 software. The image scale was set
with the ruler attached on the vessel presented in the video captures.
The bubble diameter was measured using the function of the statistical
size of Image-Pro Plus 6.0.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Classification of slag foaming types
A foam constitutes a dispersion system, consisting of gas as the
dispersed phase (discontinuous phase) and liquid as the dispersion
medium (continuous phase) [20]. The foaming process could be simply
described as follows. The bubbles in the liquid always rise rapidly, due
to the density difference between gas and liquid, forming the bubble
aggregates (foam), separated by a liquid film at the liquid surface.
Fig. 3 presents the liquid level changes under different conditions of
us. It was observed during the experimentation that the steady-state
structure characteristics and Δh changed constantly with increasing us.
Fig. 4 presents the steady-state Δh variation with us. With the foam
structure characteristics and the change rule in the Δh as the main
baseline, the slag foaming of different us was classified the four foaming
types, namely Partial Foaming I, Entire Foaming I, Entire Foaming II
and Partial Foaming II. The dynamic evolutions of different foaming
types presented the considerable differences.
3.2. Partial foaming I
When the us was too low, a low amount of tiny bubbles rose slowly
within glycerol solution. Certain scattered clusters of bubbles as-
sembled on the liquid surface, but no foam layer or liquid level change
were observed. The minimum superficial gas velocity um for onset of
foaming was defined to correspond to the situation when only a single
Viscosity (mPa∙s) Surface tension (mN∙m−1)
50–400 200–600
68 63
R. Wang, et al.
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus. (1-Air compressor; 2-Gas tank; 3-Pressure stabilizing valve; 4-Flow meter; 5-Chamber; 6-Silicon oxide filter; 7-
Flange; 8-Glycerol solution; 9-Plexiglass cylinder; 10-Video camera).
Fig. 3. Variation of liquid level with time during foaming evolution. (a) With
the continuous gas injection; (b) Foam decay curve following gas interruption.
3
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 113 (2020) 110041
Fig. 4. Variation of foaming height at different us (Points- Experiment results;
Lines-Fitting results).
layer of packed bubbles would be accumulated on the free surface [21].
Pilon et al. [21] predicted the um by a function of the physico-chemical
properties of the two-phase and the operating conditions. The results
showed that the um was 0.08 mm/s in this experimental condition,
beyond which the multiple layers of foam would be formed.
At 0.08 mm∙s−1 ≤ us ≤ 0.50 mm∙s−1, the foam system presented
two-layer structure, as presented in Fig. 5. The bubble-dispersed phase
was located at a lower layer, whereas a foam phase formed in the upper
layer, composed of stacked spherical bubbles. This state was defined as
Partial Foaming I. The Δh of Partial Foaming I increased linearly with
as the us increased, as presented in Fig. 6. The relationship between Δh
and us is presented in Eq. (4) (R2 = 0.988). It was verified again that um
R. Wang, et al.
Fig. 5. Foam structure of Partial Foaming I (us = 0.30 mm∙s−1).
Fig. 6. Relationship between foaming height and superficial gas velocity of
Partial Foaming I.
should be 0.08 mm∙s−1, when the Δh approached zero.
Partial Foaming I
Δh = 32.87 × us − 2.79
where, Δh is the foaming height (mm) and us is the superficial gas ve-
locity (mm∙s−1).
When Partial Foaming I (0.08 mm∙s−1 ≤ us ≤ 0.50 mm∙s−1) oc-
curred, it was observed that small bubbles (diameter:
0.35 mm–1.26 mm) detached from the silicon oxide filter, slowly rose
to the free surface, becoming accumulated into the spherical foam
layer. Also, the bubbles of the top layer continuously collapsed. It could
be observed from Fig. 3(a) that the liquid level increased slowly as
bubbles gradually becoming accumulated within the liquid phase.
When the rate of bubble generation on the silicon oxide filter equaled to
the rate of bubble collapse on top foam layer, the liquid level stopped
increasing. Subsequently, the foaming system went into a state of dy-
namic equilibrium (steady-state as aforementioned). As presented in
Fig. 3(b), the foam decayed at a uniform rate subsequently to gas supply
interruption.
3.3. Entire foaming I
At 0.50 mm∙s−1 < us < 10.00 mm∙s−1, all free liquids
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 113 (2020) 110041
Fig. 7. Foam structure of Entire Foaming I (us = 3.33 mm∙s−1).
participated into the formation of foam phase with the bubble-dispersed
phase of lower layers disappearing. This was defined as Entire foaming
I, while its foam structure is presented in Fig. 7. The relationship be-
tween Δh and us is presented in Eq. (5) (R2 = 0.94). The Δh expanded to
2–3 times of the initial liquid level. The structure characteristics of foam
presented apparent inconsistency at different heights. The gas fraction α
of all foaming types could be approximately equal to Δh/h, as Eq. (6)
presented [22]. Assuming the ideal condition that all bubbles were the
same size and spheres, a structure of sphere closest packing would be
formed when the volume fraction of these spherical bubbles was 74.1%.
Therefore, the spherical foam would evolve into polyhedral foam at a
gas fraction α higher than 74.1% according to the foam geometry.
Accordingly, the critical Δh from the spherical foam into polyhedral
foam should be 2.86 times of the initial liquid level. Consequently, it
was observed that the spherical foam was transformed into the non-
spherical foam when the ΔΔh approached and exceeded 28.6 cm at
0.50 mm∙s−1 < us < 10.00 mm∙s−1. As the height increased, the
(4)
bubble morphology turned from the spherical to deformed (non-sphe-
rical), while the bubble size gradually increased.
Δh = 2.33 × us − 17.94 (5)
where, Δh is the foaming height (mm) and us is the superficial gas ve-
locity (mm∙s−1).
α = Vg /V = (V − Vl )/V ≈ (h· A− h 0 ·A) (h·A)≈(h − h 0) h ≈ Δh h (6)
where, α is the gas fraction of foam system (%); Vg and Vl are the vo-
lumes of the gas and liquid in the foam system, respectively (m3); V is
the sum volume of the gas and the liquid (m3); h and h0 are the liquid
level and the initial liquid level (m), respectively and A is the cross-
sectional area of the container (m2).
When Entire foaming I (0.50 mm∙s−1 < us < 10.00 mm∙s−1)
occurred, it was observed that the liquid level rose rapidly, and still
fluctuated during dynamic equilibrium stage, as presented in Fig. 3(a).
The liquid fluctuation mainly attributed to the structural instability of
the large non-spherical bubbles, which can be explained by the Ostwald
ripening effect [23,24]. Assuming that the pressures outside the ad-
jacent bubbles were the same, the gas pressure inside the smaller
4
R. Wang, et al. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 113 (2020) 110041

bubbles was higher than that in adjacent larger bubbles according to

Laplace Equation (see Eq. (7)). This difference in gas pressure would
drive the gas diffusion from the smaller bubbles into the adjacent larger
bubbles. This caused the larger bubbles to grow at the expense of
smaller bubbles, which further resulted in the instability of foam
structure. As a result, Δh fluctuated from 29.4 cm to 34.2 cm
(us = 6.67 mm/s), due to the Ostwald ripening effect in the non-
spherical foam structures.
ΔP = 2σ r (7)

where, ΔP is the pressure difference inside and outside the bubble (Pa),
σ is the surface tension of the liquid (N/m) and r is the radius of the
bubble curvature (m).
As presented in Fig. 3(b), the decaying rate of the foam decreased as
the liquid level dropped following the gas supply interruption. When
the us was 0.60 mm∙s−1, the decaying duration of foam was the longest.
It was inferred that the foam had the maximum stability, because its
structure was in almost similar to the densest packing of spherical
bubbles.
3.4. Entire foaming II
When the us further increased to
10.00 mm∙s−1 ≤ us ≤ 16.67 mm∙s−1, the lower layers remained
spherical, while the upper layers were polyhedral foam, as presented in
Fig. 8(a). This was defined as Entire foaming II.
The Δh expanded, exceeding more than four times of the initial li-
quid level, reaching a peak value. It was observed that the polyhedral
bubbles at upper layers were generated by the coalescence of smaller
bubbles. In this polyhedral foam structure, every three adjacent poly-
hedral bubbles formed a triangular concave Plateau boundary [25–27],
as presented with a red circle in Fig. 8(a). In addition to the Ostwald
ripening effect as mentioned above, the drainage behavior of the Pla-
teau boundary [25,26,28–30] was another important reason for the
instability of the polyhedral foam structure. Fig. 8(b) presents the
Plateau boundary morphology. Due to the different radius of curvature,
the pressure on the bubble film was higher than on the Plateau
boundary. This would cause the liquid to be drained from the bubble
film (Point A) towards the Plateau boundary (Point B). As a result, the
Δh of Entire foaming II sharply fluctuated from 40 cm to 51 cm
(us = 13.33 mm/s), due to the poor instability of the polyhedral foam
structure.
When Entire foaming II (10.00 mm∙s−1 < us ≤ 16.67 mm∙s−1)
Fig. 9. Bubble size distribution of different heights (us = 10.00 mm∙s−1).
occurred, the increase in the liquid level ended with a sharp drop (see
Fig. 3(a)), caused by the formation of polyhedral bubbles at upper
layers. The liquid level fluctuated sharply (see Fig. 3(a)), due to the
poor stability of the large polyhedral bubbles at the upper levels. As
aforementioned, the Ostwald ripening effect and the drainage behavior
of the Plateau boundary were the main reasons of the polyhedral foam
instability. Moreover, the Ostwald ripening effect of the bubbles of
different heights opened a gas passage, resulting in a dramatic foam
collapse.
As it could be observed from Fig. 3(b), the foam decaying rate (slope
of the decaying curve) of Entire foaming I and II was quite higher
compared to Partial foaming I, indicating that the structure of spherical
foam was significantly more stable than the non-spherical foam struc-
ture. In addition, the liquid level of Entire foaming II rapidly decreased,
due to the polyhedral bubble breakage subsequently to gas supply in-
terruption. Moreover, the foam decay rate of Entire foaming II appar-
ently decreased with the liquid level drop following the gas supply
interruption, which was highly related to the bubble sizes at different
heights. As presented in Fig. 9, the bubble sizes significantly decreased
as the height dropped. It was observed that the foam decayed from the
top to the bottom following the gas supply interruption. As a result, the
decay rate of foam slowed down as the bubble size decreased.

Fig. 8. Foam structure of Entire Foaming II (us = 10.00 mm∙s−1).

5
R. Wang, et al.
Fig. 10. Foam structure of Partial Foaming II (us = 40.00 mm∙s−1).
3.5. Partial foaming II
At 16.67 mm∙s−1 < us < 53.33 mm∙s−1, the foam structure is
presented in Fig. 10. A few polyhedral foams were still located at the
upper layers, while the bubble-dispersed phase reappeared at lower
layer. This state was defined as Partial foaming II. Compared to the
Partial Foaming I, the number and size of the bubbles apparently be-
came higher. In addition, the boundary between the foam phase and
bubble-dispersed phase was no longer clear or regular during Partial
Foaming II.
In this us range, ΔΔh decreased continuously with the increase of us,
as presented in Fig. 4. The fitting result between Δh and us was pre-
sented in Eq. (8) (R2 = 0.91). It was observed that the larger bubble
size and strong disturbance became significantly large at extremely
high values of us, which would further result in the acceleration of
bubbles rising and collapse. The rising velocity of single bubble is ex-
pressed as Eq. (10), as derived through the force balance of bubble (Eq.
(9)). The velocity increase of bubbles would increase squarely with the
bubble sizes. Therefore, the bubble residence time was significantly
shortened, while the disturbance of the high-speed air flow was
strengthened under the extremely high us. As a result, the lower layer
was transformed into the bubble-dispersed phase, while the foaming
height also reduced accordingly.
Δh = −0.90 × us + 52.10
where, Δh is the foaming height (mm) and us is the superficial gas ve-
locity (mm∙s−1).
1 6·πd3ρl g − 1 6·πd3ρg g = ρl /2·CD Aub2
where, the first and second terms on the left are buoyancy and gravity,
respectively; the left term is resistance force; d is the bubble diameter; ρl
and ρg is the liquid and gas density, respectively; A is the projected area
of bubble in the motion direction; ub is the motion velocity and CD is the
drag coefficient, equal to 24/Re (Re = ρl ub d μ ).
ub = (4 3CD )·[(ρl − ρg ) ρl ]·gd
= 1 18·[(ρl − ρg ) ρl ]·(gρl d 2 μ) ≈ 1 18·(gρl d 2 μ)
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 113 (2020) 110041
Fig. 11. High-speed stream penetrating the liquid phase (us = 53.33 mm∙s−1).
where, μ is the dynamic viscosity of the liquid phase (Pa∙s).
When us ≥ 53.33 mm∙s−1, the high-speed gas flow penetrated the
liquid phase, leading to the disappearance of the foam, as presented in
Fig. 11. A low amount of bubbles originated from the break-up of the
high-speed gas stream.
In summary, the foaming phenomena order of appearance was
Partial Foaming I → Entire Foaming I → Entire Foaming II → Partial
Foaming II in turn, as the us increased. Fig. 12 presents the foam
structures of all foaming types. Zhu et al. [9,11] also observed two types
of Partial foaming and Entire foaming through physical simulation of
slag foaming. Zhu et al. [31] found the similar phenomenon through X-
Ray observation of high temperature slag foaming. However, in pre-
vious studies, the structure characteristics of foaming slag were not
analyzed, without including the relation between slag structure and
dynamic evolution of slag foaming.
This study results indicated that the us adjustment would be a useful
and executable method to control the slag foaming. In the actual me-
(8)
tallurgical production process, the us varies over a wide range, in which
the considerable differences of the structure characteristics of foaming
slag and dynamic evolution of slag foaming have shown in this study.
The us can be changed through the oxygen lance position of BOF, ma-
(9) terials addition, and other process parameters to avoid the improper
slag foaming.
4. Conclusions
In this study, the Morton number was employed to measure the
similarity between BOF slag and glycerol solution, while the physical
model of slag foaming was established. The structure characteristics of
foaming and the slag dynamic evolution of slag foaming was analyzed
(10) systematically under us. The results demonstrated that the foaming
6
R. Wang, et al.
Fig. 12. Foam structures of different foaming types (a) us < 0.08 mm∙s−1; (b) us = 0.08 mm∙s−1; (c) 0.10 mm∙s−1 ≤ us ≤ 0.50 mm∙s−1; (d)
0.50 mm∙s−1 < us < 10.00 mm∙s−1; (e) 10.00 mm∙s−1 ≤ us ≤ 16.67 mm∙s−1; (f) 16.67 mm∙s−1 < us < 53.33 mm∙s−1; (g) us ≥ 53.33 mm∙s−1.
height increased first and consequently decreased as the superficial gas
velocity increased. The different structure characteristics of foaming
slag and dynamic evolution laws of slag foaming were presented.
(1) In the range of 0.08 mm∙s−1 < us ≤ 0.50 mm∙s−1, the foam
layer began to form and expanded slowly, while the foaming system
presented two-layer structure (Partial foaming I). The bubble-dispersed
phase was in the lower layer, while the spherical bubbles were stacked
into a foam phase on upper layers. The foaming height increased lin-
early with the rise of us. The foam decayed at a uniform rate following
gas supply interruption.
(2) In the range of 0.50 mm∙s−1 < us < 10.00 mm∙s−1, Entire
foaming I occurred. The bubble size of upper layers was significantly
larger compared to the lower layers, while the bubbles were mutually
extruded into the non-spherical foam. The foaming height increased
rapidly as the superficial gas velocity increased. The foam decaying rate
decreased as the liquid level dropped following the gas supply inter-
ruption. When us was 0.60 mm∙s−1, the foam had the maximum sta-
bility because its structure was almost similar to densest packing of
spherical bubbles.
(3) In the range of 10.00 mm∙s−1 ≤ us ≤ 16.67 mm∙s−1, Entire
foaming II occurred. The foaming height reached the peak value. The
foam structure of upper layers evolved into polyhedral with the poor
instability, as caused by the Ostwald ripening effect and the drainage
behavior of the Plateau boundary. Therefore, the liquid level of steady-
state fluctuated drastically, while the liquid level rapidly decreased due
to the polyhedral bubble breakage following the gas supply stop.
(4) In the range of 16.67 mm∙s−1 < us < 53.33 mm∙s−1, Partial
foaming II occurred. The upper foam was still polyhedral, while the
lower layer evolved back into a bubble-dispersed phase. The dis-
turbance of foam system became stronger, while the speed of bubble
height increase and collapse became faster. The foaming height gra-
dually decreased as the superficial gas velocity increased. As the us
further increased, the high-speed gas flow penetrated the liquid phase,
leading to the foam disappearance.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Ruifang Wang: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation,
Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft. Bo
Zhang: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project ad-
ministration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original
draft, Writing - review & editing. Chengjun Liu: Conceptualization,
Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing - review &
editing. Maofa Jiang: Project administration, Resources, Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
7
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 113 (2020) 110041
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
Financial support to this project is provided by National Key R & D
Program of China, China, Grant No. 2017YFC0805100; National
Natural Science Foundation of China, China; Grant No. 51774087;
Liaoning Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, China, Grant
No. 2019-MS-123 and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities, China, Grant No. N180725008.
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