Physical modelling of metallurgical processes

Today physical modelling is a commonly used tool in modelling metallurgical processes. It can be applied both in steel metallurgy and non-ferrous metals metallurgy processes. It gives the opportunity to determine the hydrodynamic conditions of the processes. Although, the flow of mass and gas is not totally presented by such modelling, this kind of research is very often and willingly used. That is because it is really difficult to conduct experimental research in industrial conditions. Typically water is used as a modelling agent, so the physical modelling is not as expensive as the one carried out in industrial conditions. To obtain representative research from physical modelling the physical models have to be built according to the strict rules coming from the theory of similarity. The results obtained from the experimental test on the physical model, after verification, can be transferred to the real conditions. The article shows the obatined results coming from physical modelling of the steel production process. In the Institute of Metals Technologies of Silesian University of Technology the appropriate test stand was built to simulate the steel flow and mixing in the ladle. The visualization results have been presented. To simulate processing condition during aluminium refining additional test stand was also built. The exemplary results have been shown for different flow rate of gas, rotary impeller speed and different shapes of impellers. All presented results have been discussed and presented for the perspectives of further research.