ANALYSIS OF ELECTRICALLY-INDUCED FLOWS IN DC ELECTRIC-ARC FURNACE

Limitations of natural resources and environmental pollution problems have forced people to consider seriously about recycling of materials. As a means of recycling, DC are furnace can be used to recycle scrap materials and already some industries have started to use it in small scale production. An in depth understanding of the process is essentia l for optimal design and efficient control. Therefore, in order to hav e a better understanding of the process, we developed a mathematical m odel and the model equations are numerically solved. Volume of fluid m ethod is used to treat the free surface. Numerical results show that a single vortical region is generated within the melt when the bottom e lectrode diameter is large. When the bottom electrode diameter is smal l, two vortical regions are found with opposite rotation. It is also f ound that the volume of fluid method can give a more detailed picture of the flow near tile surface below the top electrode.