NUMERICAL MODELING OF MULTIPHASE PLASMA SOIL FLOW AND HEAT-TRANSFER IN AN ELECTRIC-ARC FURNACE

A study on an are melter used for waste minimization process is presen ted. The plasma phase of the are and the liquid-solid phases of the mo lten soil are simulated simultaneously. Newtonian fluid model is used for both the plasma and the molten phases. Parametric study is made on different are lengths and are currents with varying input powers. Cal culations show that both convective heat transfer and Joule heating me chanism yield high heat dissipation in the melt pool. It is found that the buoyancy and the surface shear driven convection established in t he melt pool are the major contribution to the more uniform mixing of the molten soil. For the long are, the gas environment above the molte n soil has large heated volume while the melted soil volume is small c ompared to those of short are. The induced circulation in the melt poo l is stronger for the short are than that of long are. For the same in put power, increasing current results more heat dissipation inside the melt pool than increasing voltage drop.