Title: CFD modelling of the effect of furnace crater pressure on the melt and gas flows in the submerged arc furnaces used for silicon production

Authors: Mehdi Kadkhodabeigi, Halvard Tveit, Stein Tore Johansen

Addresses: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Norwegian University of Sciences and Technology (NTNU), P.O. Box 7491, Trondheim, Norway. ' Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Norwegian University of Sciences and Technology (NTNU), P.O. Box 7491, Trondheim, Norway. ' SINTEF Material and Chemistry, Flow Technology Group, P.O. Box 7465, Trondheim, Norway

Abstract: In this paper the effect of furnace crater pressure on the melt and gas flows inside the submerged arc furnaces used for silicon production is investigated. The multiphase flow model predicts how the gas pressure in the furnace crater zone can affect the metal flows at the furnace bottom, the gas flow pattern inside the charge materials, the metal tapping flow rate and the gas flow rate from the furnace taphole. The model also shows that gas blow out from the tap hole can change the gas flow pattern inside the charge materials all the way to the furnace top.

Keywords: submerged arc furnaces; furnace crater pressure; zone permeability; taphole gassing phenomenon; porous media; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; melt flow; gas flow; silicon production; metal tapping flow rate; gas blow out.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2010.035371

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2010 Vol.10 No.5/6, pp.374 - 383

Published online: 26 Sep 2010 *

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