Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect JOURNAL OF IRON AND STEEL RESEARCH, INTERNATIONAL. 2010, 17(9): 14-18 Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer Modeling of AC Arc in Ferrosilicon Submerged Arc Furnace M Mohebi Moghadam' , S H Seyedein' , hool of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran 16846-13114, Iran) M Reza Aboutalebi3 Abstract: A two-dimensional mathematical model was developed to describe the heat transfer,and fluid flow in an AC arc zone of a ferrosilicon submerged arc furnace. In this model, the timedependent conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy in the specified domain of plasma zone were numerically solved by coupling with the Maxwell and Laplace equations for magnetic filed and electric potential, respectively. A control volume-based finite difference method was used to solve the governing equations in cylindrical coordinates. The reliability of the developed model was checked by experimental data from the previous available literature. The results of present model were in good agree- ment with the given data comparing with other models, because of solving the Maxwell and Laplace equations simul- taneously in order to calculate current density. In addition, parametric studies were carried out to evaluate the effects of electrical current and arc length on flow field and temperature distribution within the arc. According to the compu- ted results, a lower power input led to a higher arc efficiency. Key words: plasma modeling; heat transfer; fluid flow; AC submerged arc furnace In the ferrosilicon submerged arc furnace, heat is supplied to the molten bath by electric arc through graphite electrodes. In this regard, fundamental un- derstanding of the heat transfer, fluid flow, and electro- magnetic phenomena is necessary to improve the con- trol of these metallurgical reactors"'. To achieve this goal, use of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models has been increasingly popular. In 1981, Ushio and Szekely firstly and then McKelliget and Szekely performed numerical simulation of a DC electric arc furnace by using the turbulent Navier-Stokes , energy conservation and Maxwell equations in the arc and bath regions of the system. In their calcula- tion, a parabolic current density distribution was as- sumed through the arc region to simplify the mag- netic problem. In 1985, McKelliget and Szekely used the magnetic diffusion equation to predict heat transfer and fluid flow in a welding arc. With more powerful computers, it became possible to solve more complex problems. In 1992, Choo, Szekely and Westhof, and in 1995, Qian, Farouk and Ma- tharasan, solved Laplace's equation for the electric potential to determine boundary conditions for a model of the weld pool. In 1996, Larsen and Bakken used the magnetic transport equation to predict the current and magnetic field in an AC arcCz1. As mentioned above, several individual models of DC electric arcs in welding or furnace were devel- oped. However, in the AC electric arc furnace, which has a great share in metallurgical industry, very limited researches have been donec3]. Therefore, the present work was undertaken to develop a model of AC arc to predict temperature distribution, flow pattern, and c'urrent density on the melt surface. This information was further used to define boundary condition and represent heating and mixing effects on the metal bath. For testing the reliability of the model, predicted velocities and temperatures were compared with experimental data from Bowman's investigation. These results showed good consistency and confirmed that the model pre- diction is reliableC4-51. 1 Mathmatical Model The schematic drawing of the studied domain is given in Fig. 1. As shown, the domain is restricted Biography:M Mohebi Moghadam(l980-), Male, Master; E-mail: Mahyar. mm@gmail. corn; Received Date: December 1 , 2008