Browsing by Author "Jokilaakso, Ari, Prof. Emeritus, Aalto University, Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Finland"

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Matte–slag interaction simulation in the flash smelting settler using coupled CFD-DEM
(2024) Jylhä, Jani-Petteri
School of Chemical Engineering | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
The flash smelting process is a major copper production method. However, a closed furnace with high temperatures makes physical observations of matte settling through the slag physically impossible and, thus, computer simulations are needed to study settling. Previously, settling simulations have been made using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this project, a new method of using coupled CFD-DEM (discrete element method) was developed and used to study copper matte droplets in a flash smelting settler. Traditionally, CFD-DEM is a fluid and solid particle simulation method; however, by simulating soft spheres and creating user-defined submodels for coalescence and reaction kinetics, liquid matte droplets settling through a slag layer could be studied. Due to the impossibility of observing a high-temperature process in situ, a room temperature physical model was needed to validate the chosen simulation method. Plastic spheres were fed into an oil bath, in which their settling was filmed and compared to simulation results of the same system. Both the experiments and the simulation produced a channeling flow, where drag from the settling spheres pulls the flow of droplets into a narrow channel, accelerating the settling velocity significantly. However, at the bottom of the oil, the flow turns sideways and then up, forming a vortex ring around the channel, which may entrain slowly settling objects. Several matte–slag simulations were made with CFD-DEM, utilizing either the coalescence model or the combined coalescence and reaction kinetics model. Channeling flow, similar to the sphere–oil experiment and simulation, occurred with every matte–slag simulation. The flow caused the matte droplets to settle through the slag significantly faster than predicted by Stoke's law. The coalescence and reaction kinetics models further accelerated the matte droplets as coalescence increased the size of the droplets while reaction kinetics caused copper to concentrate in the droplets as iron and sulfur were removed, which increased droplet density. The coalescence rate was increased by the channeling flow as it caused the droplets to enter a narrower channel, causing an increased number of collisions and, thus, coalescence.