Developments in the modelling of oxygen steelmaking

Steelmaking is a complex process involving simultaneous multi-phase interactions, chemical reactions, heat transfer and turbulent flow patterns at high temperatures. The severe operating conditions make it difficult to make measurements and directly observe the process. Mathematical modelling has been widely used to evaluate the process and improve understanding of the system and optimise process control. Three approaches to modelling the process, equilibrium modelling to predict the equilibrium chemistry of the process, kinetic modelling to analyse rate of chemical changes throughout the process, and computational fluid modelling to understand the fluid flow in the reactor, are discussed in this paper. The governing equations and the forms of numerical computational solution techniques for these models are described, and critically examined.