EUROPEAN STEEL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION DAYS 2017 - ESTAD 2017

Oxygen blowing is the main operation in the steel refining process in BOF (Basic Oxigen Furnance) steelmaking. This blow is made by an oxygen injection lance through supersonic nozzles, which must be designed for the specific operating conditions, such as flow and oxygen pressures, height in relation to the metal bath, lance height, etc.. Bad design of these nozzles directly influences the time and process efficiency, and often results in premature wear of the nozzles and their removal from production. This type of failure has been observed in tip nozzles in Vallourec Brazil. This work presents a methodology of studies and results of metallography in samples of tips used by Vallourec Brazil, in addition to CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations of the gas jet. This information was used as a basis for the redesign of the nozzles, in order to reduce the impacts caused by wear.