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Projects

Kinetics of Liquid Aluminium Oxidation (CAST CRC project)

Commenced September 2008

Limiting the formation of losses of metal through oxidation is important to lowering the environment impact of aluminium production. Though the oxidation of Aluminium and its alloys has been a subject of academic and industrial interest for many years, there is still some confusion on the kinetics of this process, particularly, during the handling of molten metal in industrial operations. In this project, understanding the fundamental aspects of dross (aluminium oxide) formation during an industrial molten aluminium handling is a preliminary goal. From this understanding and through controlled high temperature experiments, mathematical model for aluminium oxidation and dross formation will be developed. The result could lead to control and reducing the rate of dross formation.

Computational Fluid Dynamic Modelling of Top Submerged Lance

Commenced January 2008

This project is focused on developing a new CFD model for Top Submerged Lance (TSL) technology to allow greater control of combustion processes. The modelling work will be coupled with high temperature experimental work to validate key aspects of the model. These models will assist in increasing the eco efficiency of TSL Technology and enhance the national capacity to develop sustainable technologies in the area of process metallurgy, particularly facilitating the use of carbons replacement waste material for the smelting and recycling of metals.

Modelling of Marangoni Effect in Steelmaking Reactions

Commenced July 2007

This project is focused on the extraordinary behaviour of irons droplets reacting in slags. Experimental studies have shown that molten iron droplets containing oxidisable elements such as Al and Si spontaneous emulsify in molten slags after an initial incubation time. Experimental studies have shown that each droplet fragments into hundreds of smaller droplets and significantly affects the overall kinetics of the reaction. Previous researchers have attributed this behaviour to convective flows caused by large surface tension gradients, the "Marangoni Effect", in the droplets that is thought, in turn, to be related to the uneven distribution of dissolved oxygen on the surface of the droplet. This project is focused on developing mathematical models for this phenomena based on fundamental physics and chemistry.

Modelling of Thermal Magnesium Processes

Commenced May 2007

Magnesium is an important metal with attractive properties for the light weighting of cars. The dominant process for making magnesium is the Pidgeon process which is small batch wise process based on silicothermic reduction of dolomite. The process is operated at low temperatures and under vacuum, resulting in a relatively high purity product but produced very slowly. A continuous atmospheric pressure route is currently under development in South Africa based on a similar chemistry, whilst in Australia there is significant work on developing a continuous carbothermic route to magnesium. This project will concentrate on modelling of the physical chemistry of these processes, particularly the silicothermic route, to determine what purity product can be achieved for a range of process configurations and operating conditions.

Modelling of Oxygen Steelmaking

Commenced February 2007

Steel is the most produced metal in the world and oxygen steelmaking is the dominant process for producing steel. Oxygen steelmaking is a chemical refining process for producing steel from impure iron that involves high speed injection of oxygen into molten baths above 1600 ºC. This study will build on recent breakthroughs in understanding the kinetics of the process, in particular, the strong link between the buoyancy of droplets generated from high speed injection and overall chemical kinetics. In this study, these links will be developed into a global model of the process and compared to existing industrial data. The unsteady state nature of the process and the strong link between physics and chemistry provide the greatest challenges to forming an accurate model. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a truly predictive model of this important industrial process.

Analysis of Bubble Flow in Al Cells using Multivariate Statistical Techniques

Commenced January 2007

The behaviour of bubbles within metallurgical vessels is important to crucial aspects of their operation, such as, mass transfer, heat transfer, splash generation, reaction of mineral phases with the atmosphere and refractory/electrode degradation. Cold models of Hall Heroult Cells for aluminium production have been developed to study these aspects of the process and to provide data for verification of mathematical models. The development of techniques for rapid evaluation of bubbling flow images and acoustic emissions would not only provide useful data for analysing cold modelling experiments but also potentially lead to the development of techniques for controlling industrial systems In principle, it should be possible to simultaneously analyse other related data, such as acoustic data, in the same way, though there are significant challenges related to sampling, time dependency and data scaling that need to addressed. In this project, this challenge will firstly be addressed through development of appropriate techniques for a simple bubbling geometry before testing the techniques developed on the more complicated geometry of an Al Cell.

Experimental and Mathematical Modelling of Particle Separation in a Vibrational Classifier

Commenced March 2007

Separation of particles is an important process in many industrial applications. This project will focus on the separation of particles using a vibrational classifier. The experimental section of this study will focus on using the CSIRO vibrational classifier rig to separate particles according to size by varying the horizontal and vertical vibration rates. Video will be used determine the extent of separation so that the separation can be optimised for these particles. The mathematical modelling component will consist of modelling the vibrational classifier experiment to determine how well the mathematical model can predict the particle separation.

Design of Bubbling Unit for CSIRO Aluminium Cold Model

Commenced March 2007

CSIRO currently models the flow patterns within aluminium smelting cells using a water model at their Clayton laboratories. The formation and distribution of bubbles in the water model is important to accurately model the system. In this project, the study will evaluate the current design, form a new design and test the new bubbling element.

Available PhD Projects

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