Modeling of the Vacuum Oxygen Decarburization Refining Process

A dynamic model for the vacuum oxygen decarburization (VOD) refining process is presented. A new method is used to calculate the oxygen distribution in the metal/gas reactions. It is based on a stepwise comparison of the reaction free energies, and it allows the continuous calculation of the change of the metal, slag, and gas composition throughout the duration of the VOD process. Fine tuning of a limited number of model parameters is sufficient to simulate an industrial VOD process. The calculated final metal composition and temperature are in reasonable agreement with the production data. The influence of oxygen flow rate, vacuum pressure, and argon flow rate on process characteristics was analyzed and suggestions are made for improving the processing conditions.