Parameters optimising of the protective gas electroslag remelting

Abstract

In this study, experimental and numerical studies for the parameters optimising of the protective gas electroslag remelting in a three-phase electroslag furnace using the double electrode series technique have been carried out. The influence of the water vapour pressure in the atmosphere on the hydrogen content in metal molten pool was studied by the experiments, and a mathematical model was set up for the behaviour of hydrogen pick-up during electroslag remelting process. The realisable k − ε turbulence model, transport model and discrete ordinance (DO) radiation model were used to calculate the flow of gases in the furnace. The influence of argon gas flux on the air mole fraction in the furnace has been studied. Based on the experiment and numerical simulation, the inlet layout of shroud is optimised, to control the hydrogen content of ingots below 2 × 10⁻⁶ at the condition in this paper, the argon gas flux required should remain above 0·07 kg s⁻¹.

Keywords:

• Electroslag remelting
• Argon gas flux
• Air mole fraction
• Hydrogen contend
• Mathematical modelling

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 51274057, 51474057) and the National High-tech R&D Program of China (nos. 2012AA03A508, 2013AA030902).