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Modelling of slag foaming

Article  in  Ironmaking & Steelmaking · November 2010

DOI: 10.1179/030192310X12690127076550

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 Modelling of slag foaming
L. S. Wu, G. J. Albertsson and Du Sichen*
In this work, silicone oils of different viscosities were used to simulate slag foaming. The
experimental results showed that the variations of foaming height with superficial gas velocity and
liquid viscosity do not show simple increasing trends. At a constant viscosity, foaming height
increased first and then started decreasing with increasing superficial velocity. Similarly, a
maximum foaming height was observed at an optimum viscosity when a constant gas flowrate
was applied. The foaming height started decreasing with further increasing viscosity. Based on
the experimental data, a semiempirical equation of foaming height was developed. The
predictions of the model agreed well with experimental data. The model could also reasonably
well explain the industrial pilot trial experiments. The experimental results with paraffin particle
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

additions indicated that a small amount of particle addition moved the onset of foaming to lower
superficial velocity. However, the increase in viscosity due to the presence of solid particles was
found not the main reason for the increase in foaming height.
Keywords: Slag foaming, Mathematical modelling, Physical modelling

List of symbols
g Gravitational acceleration, m s22
h Total height of oil with foam, m
h0 Initial height of oil, m
j Superficial velocity of gas, m s21
Dh h2h0, m
m Dynamic viscosity, Pa s
n Kinematic viscosity, m2 s21
r Liquid density, kg m23
s Surface tension, N m21
Introduction
Slag foaming plays an important role in steelmaking
process. For example, proper slag foaming in the basic
oxygen furnace enhances the transfer of heat due to post
combustion to the metal bath below. On the other hand,
excessive slag foaming results in slopping, which
seriously affects the production of steel. In the electrical
arc furnace (EAF), slag foaming is used to protect
electrodes and metal from the atmosphere. A good
foaming slag in the EAF can also help energy saving.
Many studies on foaming height have been con-
ducted. The concept of foaming index has been widely
used by a number of researcher groups.1–7 According to
the definition of foaming index, the height of slag foam
is characterised by each slag composition. The foaming
height is proportional to the superficial velocity of the
gas as well as the viscosity of the slag and inversely
proportional to the square roots of the surface tension
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of
Technology, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden
*Corresponding author, email du@mse.kth.se
and density of the slag. On the other hand, a number of
investigations have reported different observation.
Kitamura and Okohira,8 based on their experimental
results, report that the height of slag foam decreases
with increasing slag viscosity. Stadler et al.9 find that the
foaming index cannot be applied to their experimental
results. Hong et al.10 also argue that no relationship
between slag foaming and slag properties such as
viscosity and surface tension can be found as suggested
by a foaming index.
The decrease in foaming height with increasing
viscosity is even found in the pilot convertor.11 Based
on their pilot converter results, these authors also report
a decrease in foaming height with the rate of gas
generation (superficial velocity). Capodilupo et al.12
report that there is an optimum basicity (viscosity),
where foaming height shows a maximum.
The controversy between the results of different
research groups might be due to the different experi-
mental conditions, e.g. the range of superficial velocities
and the range of viscosities. More complicated models
such as the void fraction model,13,14 and the model
based on drag coefficient as well as bubble diameter,15
are also suggested. Because of the lack of the model
parameters, the application of these models to the
metallurgical processes is not a very easy task.
It is commonly agreed that the presence of solid
particles has strong impact on slag foaming.16–18 The
impact is usually explained by the increase in viscosity of
the slag due to the presence of particles.2,7 However,
lack of evidence makes this argument still uncertain.
The present work aims at a semiempirical model to
estimate foaming height as function of slag properties
and gas velocity. In view of the controversy between
previous publications, a wide range of experimental

ß 2010 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 19 January 2010; accepted 15 February 2010
612 DOI 10.1179/030192310X12690127076550 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8

conditions was studied to get a better model prediction.
The effect of small solid particles on the foaming
behaviour was also experimentally studied.
Experimental
Silicone oils with different viscosities were employed.
The physical properties of the oils are presented in
Table 1. Oils A, B, G, K and L were supplied by BDH
Laboratory Supplies (Poole, UK), while oils C, D, E, F,
H, I and J were obtained by mixing the different
commercially available oils. Oils C, D, E, F, H, I and J
were all single phase solutions, as different oils could
easily dissolve each other. Note that the surface tensions
of oils A, B, G, K and L are all about 2161023 N m21.
It is reasonable to expect that the surface tensions of the
oil mixtures, namely, oils A, B, G, K and L, have also
surface tensions very close to 2161023 N m21. While
the viscosity of oils A, B, G, K and L were supplied by
BDH, the viscosities of the oil mixtures were determined
by a digital Brookfield LVDVII zPro viscometer. The
viscometer measured the torque required to rotate the
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd
spindle in a fluid.
These viscosities cover the viscosity range of the
converter slags. The similarity of the slag and oil systems
is met by choosing a suitable Morton number defined as
m4 g n4 r3 g
~ 3 (1)
s3 r s
where r and s are the density and surface tension of the
liquid respectively; g is the gravitational constant. m and
n in equation (1) are the viscosity and kinematic
viscosity of the liquid respectively. The Morton number
of the converter slag is around 0?006. The oils used in
the present work cover this Morton number. Higher
Morton numbers are also studied in the experiments.
To study the effect of particles on foaming, paraffin
was ground into small particles. The powders were
filtered with sieves of different meshes successively to get
powders in a number of different size groups.
The experimental set-up is schematically shown in
Fig. 1. A transparent cylindrical vessel was used. It had
an inner diameter of 92 mm and height of 400 mm. A
silicon oxide filter (with pore range 17–40 mm) divided
the vessel into two parts, namely, a gas chamber and
liquid column. The height of the gas chamber was
45 mm. Compressed air was used to generate the foam.
The flowrate of the compressed air was controlled by a
digital flow meter (type: F-201C-FA-33-V; Bronkhorst
High-Tech BV, Ruurlo, The Netherlands). Different gas
Table 1 Physical properties of silicone oils used in study
Oil Kinematic viscosity n, 1026 m2 s21 Surface tension, 1023 N m21
A 50 20.7
B 100 20.9
C 118 (21)
D 130 (21)
E 146 (21)
F 165 (21)
G 200 21
H 229 (21)
I 256 (21)
J 280 (21)
K 335 21.1
L 515 21.1
Wu et al. Modelling of slag foaming
1 Schematic diagram of experimental set-up
flowrates were used. The air gas was introduced through
the gas inlet situated in the centre of the bottom of the
gas chamber. The gas chamber enabled a uniform
distribution of gas passage through the pores of the
filter. A ruler was attached to the outside wall of the
vessel to measure the height of foaming. The process of
foaming was recorded by video camera after stabilisa-
tion of the foam. In view of the fluctuation of the
foaming height, an average value was taken over many
flames recorded over a time period of 5 min.
The effect of small particles on foaming was studied
by adding different amounts of paraffin particles in the
oil and following the foaming heights. Again, different
gas flowrates were employed. To examine whether the
increase in the viscosity of the liquid due to the presence
of particle was the reason for the particle effect on
foaming, the viscosities of different oil–paraffin mixtures
were also measured by the Brookfield LVDVII zPro
viscometer.
Results
The variation of viscosity with the amount of paraffin
particles is presented in Fig. 2. The experimental results
of two oils (oil B and oil G) are included in the figure. It
is seen that the particles of the three size groups behave
almost the same in the size range adopted. The
viscosities of both oils increase linearly with the amount
of paraffin addition up to 10 mass%.
Foaming experiments of 12 oils (Table 1) were
conducted. As an example, Figure 3 presents the
photographs of the foams of oil B at three superficial
gas velocities. It is commonly observed that silicone oil
cannot foam at very low superficial velocity because the
rupture rate of bubbles is higher than the formation rate
of bubbles. Below a certain superficial velocity, many
small gas bubbles scatter inside the oil and rise slowly,
while the increase in the oil height is hardly noticed. At
Density, kg m23
960¡4
965¡4
(970)
(970)
(970)
(970)
968¡4
(970)
(970)
(970)
969¡4
970¡4
Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8 613
 Wu et al. Modelling of slag foaming

this foaming regime. When the superficial gas velocity is

2 Variation of viscosity with amount of paraffin particles
moderated gas flowrates, foams are generated. In most
of the cases, the ‘liquid’ becomes two layers when
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd
in a suitable range, the whole liquid bath becomes foam.
Figure 3b shows a typical example of this situation. As
seen in the figure, the foaming height is several times the
initial height of the liquid. Above a certain gas velocity,
the height of foam starts decreasing. The ‘liquid’
becomes two layers again (Fig. 3c). When the superficial
velocity becomes too high, big bubbles are formed. The
big bubbles rise rapidly, resulting in strong turbulence in
the oil. In this regime, very little foaming is observed.
The foaming heights of the 12 oils are measured at
different gas flowrates and initial liquid heights. The
results are presented in Table 2. Dh in Table 2 is defined
by the following relationship
Dh~h{h0
where h and h0 stand for the total height and initial
height of the bath respectively. n in Table 2 represents
the kinematic viscosity of the oil.
Two oils, namely, oil B and oil G, were employed to
study the effect of small particles on foaming. The

foaming starts appearing. Figure 3a is an example of results are presented in Table 3. It should be mentioned

a j50?1861022 m s21; b j50?7261022 m s21; c j51?4461022 m s21

3 Image of foaming (oil B)

Table 2 Experimentally determined foaming heights

Dh

Superficial velocity, 1022 m s21

n, 1026 m2 s21 h0, cm 0.18 0.36 0.54 0.72 0.90 1.08 1.26 1.44 1.80 2.16

50 4.5 1.5 3.6 4.5 4.7 4.3 3.6 1.8 1.8

100 1.5 0.4 1 1.8 2.2 2.3 2.2 2
3.0 0.5 2.4 3.5 4.3 4.3 3.8 3.4 2.7 2.2
4.5 1.8 5 5.7 5.8 5.1 4.1 2
6.0 1.1 7.2 7.4 6.8 5.5 4.2 1.9
7.5 1.1 8.7 9.1 8 5.3 2.6 1.8
118 4.5 4.2 6.1 6.4 6.1 5.6 5.1 3.3 2.4
130 4.5 7.4 7.8 8.1 7.3 6.5 5.9 4.7 3.2 1.9
146 4.5 6.7 7.2 7.4 6.7 6.1 5.5 3.5 2
165 4.5 6.5 7.6 7.6 7.2 5.6 4.8 2.9 1.8
200 4.5 4.4 5.4 5 3.5 2.7 2.3 1.8 1.4 1.2
229 4.5 3.7 4.6 3.2 2.5 2 1.6 1.4 1.2
256 4.5 0.8 2.2 2.2 1.8 1.6 1.5 1.2 1.2
280 4.5 0.5 0.8 1 1 1 1 1 1
335 4.5 0.9 1 1 1 1 0.9 0.9 1
515 4.5 1.4 1.4 1 1 1 1 1 1

614 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8

 Wu et al. Modelling of slag foaming

4 Variation of Dh with h0 (oil B)

that all the paraffin particles are smaller than 1 mm.
Experiments with particles bigger than 5 mm indicate
that the foaming height is generally decreased by the
particles. In view of the irreproducibility of this type of
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd
6 Foaming heights as function of slag basicity (repro-
duced from Ref. 12)
the values are slightly dependent on the superficial
velocity.

experiments, it is difficult to present the experimental

observation. Nevertheless, the experiments show clearly
that big solid particles only decrease the foaming height.
Discussion
Effect of initial height of liquid
In many publications, the effect of the initial height of
slag on foaming height is not considered and discussed.
In order to examine this aspect, Dh is plotted as a
function of initial height of liquid in Fig. 4 for oil B. It is
evidently seen in Figure 4 that Dh increases nearly
linearly with increasing initial liquid height.
Effect of viscosity
Figure 5 shows the variations of Dh/h0 with kinematic
viscosity at different superficial velocities. Dh/h0
increases with increasing kinematic viscosity before
reaching a maximum value, irrespective of the superficial
velocity. Further increase in the kinematic viscosity
leads to the decrease in the foaming height. It is
interesting to note that the maximum foaming heights
are all observed at about n513061026 m2 s21, although
It is well known that a liquid with low viscosity exerts
a small drag force on the rising gas bubbles.
Consequently, the bubbles rise rapidly and therefore
leading to low gas fraction in the bath and poor
foaming. The increase in liquid viscosity would slow
down the passing through of the bubbles and lead to
better foaming. On the other hand, liquid with too high
a viscosity would increase the departure size of the
bubbles when they separate from the pore of filter.19–21
Moreover, too high a viscosity of the liquid leads also to
rapid bubble coalescence.14,15 The bigger bubbles would
pass through the liquid much faster and thereby leading
to a lower gas fraction. The two opposite effects would
naturally lead to an optimum viscosity for foaming. This
aspect is well brought by the Dh/h0–kinematic viscosity
plot in Fig. 5. In fact, similar observation is also
reported in the industrial experiment.12 The variation
of foaming height with slag basicity reported by
Capodilupo et al.12 is reproduced in Fig. 6. The viscosity
Table 3 Experimental results of oil B and oil G with
different amounts of additions of paraffin
particles (particle size ,1 mm)

Dh/h0

Particle per cent, wt-%

m0, j,
mPa?s 1022 m s21 0 2 4 6 8 10

97 0.13 0.98 0.98 1.36 1.36 1.36 1.2

97 0.26 1.29 1.29 1.49 1.31 1.09 1
97 0.39 1.42 1.33 1.38 1.16 0.96 0.78
97 0.52 1.44 1.27 1.2 1 0.71 0.56
97 0.79 1.29 1.11 0.76 0.51 0.38 0.38
97 1.05 0.93 0.8 0.51 0.38 0.29 0.27
97 1.42 0.51 0.44 0.33 0.29 0.22 0.24
97 1.77 0.38 0.33 0.29 0.24 0.22 0.22
97 2.13 0.29 0.24 0.24 0.24 0.22 0.22
186 0.13 1.58 1.51 1.36 1.22 1 0.82
186 0.26 1.53 1.42 1.11 0.82 0.67 0.51
186 0.39 1.36 1.13 0.76 0.6 0.44 0.42
186 0.52 1.07 0.82 0.56 0.33 0.38 0.38
186 0.79 0.62 0.49 0.38 0.29 0.33 0.29
5 Variation of Dh/h0 with viscosity at different superficial 186 1.05 0.36 0.33 0.29 0.27 0.27 0.24
velocities 186 1.42 0.24 0.24 0.24 0.24 0.24 0.24

Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8 615

 Wu et al. Modelling of slag foaming
7 Variation of Dh/h0 with superficial velocity at different
viscosities
of the slag having 20 mass%FeO would increase with
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd
CaO content when the basicity is higher than 1?2.1,11 A
comparison of Figs. 5 and 6 indicates that the present
laboratory observation is in good accord with the
industrial data. It is possible that the reported foaming
heights1–7 that are described by the foaming index are
associated with the viscosity region, wherein the viscous
drag force is dominating. On the other hand, the
observations of the decrease in foaming height with
viscosity8–11 are associated with the region, where bigger
bubbles have a more profound effect than the drag
force.
Effect of superficial gas velocity
Figure 7 shows the variation of Dh/h0 with superficial
velocity at different kinematic viscosities. It is almost
impossible to generate foam when the kinematic
viscosity is higher than 28061026 m2 s21. In accor-
dance with Fig. 5, the oil having kinematic viscosity of
13061026 m2 s21 has the highest foam ability. The Dh/
h0 of this oil reaches a value of 1?6 at a superficial
velocity as low as 0?2 cm s21. Except the oils (oils J, K
and L) that do not foam, the foaming height increases
first with increasing superficial velocity before reaching a
maximum value. Thereafter, the foaming height
decreases with further increasing superficial velocity.
Figure 7 indicates that the value of superficial velocity
associated with the maximum foaming height decreases
with increasing viscosity. On the one hand, higher
superficial velocity would increase the fraction of gas in
the foam, which would increase the foaming height. On
the other hand, the experimental observation shows that
too high a superficial velocity would result in intensive
turbulence and bigger bubble size, which leads to rapid
bubble coalescence and shorter bubble residence time in
the bath. As the result of the two opposing factors, a
maximum foaming height occurs at an optimum super-
ficial velocity at a given viscosity. It is worthwhile to
mention that it is difficult to conduct experiments with
gas superficial velocities below 0?1 cm s21 due to the
uncertainties involved. Figure 7 might be a reasonable
explanation to the controversy between the different
studies, namely, some of them1–7 reporting an increase
in foaming height with increasing superficial velocity
616 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8
8 Fitting of Gaussian equation: variation of Dh/h0 with
viscosity
and some reporting a decrease.11 They might have
worked in different experimental conditions.
Semiempirical model
Slag foaming is a very complicated phenomenon, as the
residence of bubbles in the bath depends on a number of
forces, such as gravity, buoyancy, inertia force and
viscous force. These forces are related to the superficial
velocity and the physical properties of the liquid as well
as the gas. In view of the fact that a model based on first
principal would be less satisfactory when applied to real
processes, a semiempirical model is developed in the
present work.
As shown in Figure 5, Dh/h0 shows a maximum at a
certain kinematic viscosity. The Dh/h0–kinematic viscos-
ity relationships appear to follow Gaussian distribution
Dh h i
~f 1 exp {C1 ðn{n0 Þ2 (2)
h0
where n is the kinematic viscosity of the liquid, no is the
kinematic viscosity at which the foaming of the liquid at
a given superficial velocity shows a maximum. C1 is a
constant, while f1 is a function of the superficial velocity
and other physical properties. To confirm this assump-
tion, all the Dh/h0–viscosity curves are fitted by
equation (2). As examples, Fig. 8 presents the fittings
for j50?72 cm s21 and j51?08 cm s21. The fittings could
be considered very reasonable, in view of the uncertain-
ties involved in the experiments. Similarly, Fig. 7
suggests that Dh/h0–superficial velocity also follow
Gaussian distribution
(     )
Dh n0 1=2 2
~f 2 exp {C2 j{ j0 (3)
h0 n
where j is the superficial velocity of the gas and the j0 is
the superficial velocity at which the foaming of the liquid
at a given kinematic viscosity shows a maximum. C2 is a
constant in the Gaussian function. f2 in equation (3) is a
function the physical properties. The term (n0/n)1/2 in
equation (3) is to take account the shift of the maximum
foaming height due to the kinematic viscosity effect. In
Fig. 9, the fitted Gaussian distributions for oil B and oil
G are presented as examples. The functions fit the
experimental data quite well.
It is commonly agreed that the residence time of a
bubble is related to the Morton number (equation (1)).22
 Wu et al. Modelling of slag foaming

9 Fitting of Gaussian equation: variation of Dh/h0 with 11 Comparison of model prediction and real foaming
superficial velocity height in 5 t converter

The bigger Morton number would result in longer Application to industrial data
residence time of the bubbles and therefore larger Tokumitsu et al.11 studied the slag foaming in a 5 t
foaming height.
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

converter. Their main findings are: (1) the foaming

Based on the above discussion, it is reasonable to height increases with iron oxide content; (2) slag
expect that Dh/h0 can be described by the following foaming becomes significant if coke weight in the
equation converter is decreased below a certain value; (3) slag
 4 3  C4 (     ) height is probably due to the gas bubbles evolved at the
Dh n r g n0 1=2 2
~C3 exp {C2 j{ j0 slag/metal interface or in the slag layer. It would be
h0 s3 n interesting to examine whether the present model can be
h i applied to their experiment data.
exp {C1 ðn{n0 Þ2 (4) The slag properties are not reported in the publica-
tion. Fortunately, the general slag compositions em-
where C3 and C4 are another two constants. On the basis
ployed in the pilot converter (Table 4) are very close to
of the experimental data listed in Table 2, the constants
the one reported by Nippon Steel,3 namely, 45CaO–
C1, C2, C3 and C4 are optimised. Hence, equation (4) is
30SiO2–10MgO–15Al2O3 (mass%). The physical proper-
rewritten as
ties of the slags having different FeO contents are given
 4 3 0:045 (    ) in Table 5 (reproduced from Ref. 3). It is seen in Table 5
Dh n r g n0 1=2 2
~2:238 exp {8150 j{ j0 that the surface tension and density show very little
h0 s3 n
dependence on the slag composition, while the viscosity
h i
decreases with increasing FeO content. It would be a
exp {1:094|108 ðn{n0 Þ2 (5)
good approximation that the same r and s are used in
Note that in equation (5), j.0?161022 m s21, all the model calculation, while the slag viscosity is allowed
properties are in SI unites. to vary.
In Fig. 10, the predicated Dh/h0 is plotted against the In the paper of Tokumitsu et al.,11 the gas generation
experimental data. The model predictions are satisfac- rate is not evaluated. As mentioned earlier, the authors
tory, indicating thereby the reliability of the model. report a decrease of foaming height with the addition of
coke. It is well known that the increase in coke attrition
would result in an increase in gas evolution. It can be
concluded that the superficial gas velocities in their
experiments are on the right hand side of the optimum
gas velocity (Fig. 7). Because of the lack of information
on the actual superficial gas velocities, model calcula-
tions are made based on two fractions of the maximum
foaming height, 0?55hmax and 0?8hmax. The calculated
foaming heights are plotted as function of viscosity in
Fig. 11. The experimentally determined foaming heights
in the 5 t converter11 are also included in the figure for
comparison. Although assuming that the gas flowrates

Table 4 Slag composition

Content,
% CaO SiO2 Al2O3 MgO T.Fe M.Fe MnO P2O5 S

Steady 39.29 27.50 14.63 14.73 4.06 0.22 0.85 0.78 0.12
10 Comparison of model predictions and experiment data state

Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8 617

 Wu et al. Modelling of slag foaming
12 Variation of Dh/h0 with superficial velocity at different
amounts of particle per cent (oil B)
corresponding to 0?55hmax and 0?8hmax are somewhat
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd
arbitrary, the assumptions are still reasonable. First, it is
very difficult for the converter to reach the optimum gas
generation rate. Second, different amounts of coke
additions would lead to different superficial gas velo-
cities. Nevertheless, the model predictions are quite
reasonable. It might be worthwhile to mention that the
application of foaming index would predict opposite
trends in comparison with the experimental data.
It should be mentioned that the present model does
not need the measurement of the constant in the
foaming index. It could predict the trend of foaming
height in a very realistic manner even the superficial gas
velocity is not exactly known.
Effect of small particles
In general, the addition of paraffin particles has positive
effect on foaming only when the amount of addition is
very low. The small amount of paraffin addition moves
the onset of foaming to lower superficial velocity. On the
other hand, higher amount of particle addition in
general has negative effect on foaming. In Fig. 12, the
Dh/h0 of oil B is plotted as a function of superficial gas
velocity for different amounts of paraffin additions. A
decrease in foaming height with increasing paraffin
addition is generally noticed, though small increase is
seen at very low superficial velocity and with small
amount of additions. This observation is in contra-
diction with the argument that the presence of tiny solid
particles usually increases the foaming.
It is commonly discussed in a number of publications
that the presence of small solid particles would increase
the slag viscosity, which in turn would enhance the slag
foaming. To examine this aspect, the Dh/h0 of the oil G
with 10 mass% paraffin addition is plotted in Fig. 13.
According to the viscosity measurement, this two phase
mixture has a viscosity value of 280 mPa s. If the
increase in the viscosity due to the presence of particles
Table 5 Nippon Steel’s bath smelting slag (45CaO–30SiO2–
10MgO–15Al2O3, T51773 K)
Percentage of FeO 1.0 3.0 6.0 9.0
r, kg m23 2776 2801 2838 2877
s, mN m21 522.7 524.9 528.4 532.4
m, Pa?s 0.475 0.458 0.433 0.409
618 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8
13 Comparison of foaming height of oil and oil–paraffin
mixture
would be the main factor affecting the foaming height,
the foaming height of this mixture should show similar
trends to the pure oil having the same viscosity, e.g. oil J
(272 mPa s). The Dh/h0 of pure oil J is also plotted in
Fig. 13. It is evidently seen that although the two
systems have very similar viscosity values, the foaming
behaviours are very different. Hence, the argument that
the presence of small particles increases the slag
viscosity, which in turn increases foaming height, is
subjected to question.
On the basis of the above discussion, it can be
concluded that the presence of small amounts of solid
particles would help initiate slag foaming. On the other
hand, the small particles would not increase the
foaming height. Too many small particles will decrease
the foaming height. The effect of the presence of
particles on foaming is not mainly due to its effect on
viscosity.
Summary
Slag foaming was studied by a cold model using silicone
oils of different viscosities. The effects of viscosity,
superficial gas velocity and the presence of small solid
particles were examined. It was found that the variations
of foaming height with viscosity and superficial velocity
could both be approximated as Gaussian distributions.
An equation was suggested based on this approxima-
tion. Based on the experimental data, the model
parameters were optimised. The semiempirical model
was found to satisfactorily to reproduce the experi-
mental data. The model was also promising when
applied to the industrial converter.
The experimental results indicated that addition of
tiny solid particles (,10%) into the liquid usually
increased the viscosity. Very small amounts of particle
addition would favour the onset of the foaming with
respect to superficial velocity. On the other hand, a
decrease in foaming height with increasing paraffin
addition was generally noticed, though a small
increase was seen at very low superficial velocity and
with small amount of additions. It was concluded that
the effect of foaming height by the presence of small
solid particles was not mainly due to the increase in
viscosity.
 Wu et al. Modelling of slag foaming

Acknowledgement
The EU Commission and the Research Fund for Coal
and Steel are gratefully acknowledged for the financial
support through the project BATHFOAM (No. RFSR-
CT-2008-00004).
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