Numerical simulations of convection in the titanium reduction reactor

We introduce a hydrodynamic model of convective flows in a titanium reduction reactor. The reactor retort is a cylindrical vessel with a radius of 0.75 m and a height up to 4m, filled with liquid magnesium at a temperature of 850°C. The exothermic chemical reaction on the metal surface, cooling of the side wall and heating of the lower part of the retort cause strong temperature gradients in the reactor during the process. These temperature gradients cause intensive convective flows inside the reactor. As a result of the reaction, a block of titanium sponge grows at the retort bottom and the magnesium salt, whose density is close to the density of magnesium, settles down. The process of magnesium salt settling in a titanium reduction reactor was numerically studied in a two-dimensional (full size model) and three-dimensional (30% size of the real model) non-stationary formulation. A detailed analysis was performed for configurations with and without presence of convective flow due to work of furnace heaters. It has been established that magnesium salt is settling in drops with sizes from ~3 cm to ~10 cm. It was shown that convective flow can entrain the drop and carry it with the vortex.