Modelling Gas Flow Behaviour in Gas Atomizer

Abstract: Gas atomization is regarded as a reliable method for creating high-quality metal powders from molten metal. The liquid metal is fed into the chamber as a free-falling stream through a nozzle, where it is impinged by high-velocity gas jets, causing degeneration and production of metal droplets, which solidify to create metal powders. As the metal droplets fall lower towards the collection hoopers, the solidification process begins. As a result, having a strong handle on the process parameters helps to produce metal powders that are fine, spheroidized, and have good characteristics. A free fall atomizer with twelve discrete nozzles, having a cylindrical internal profile, arranged in two different levels has been employed to introduce high-velocity gas jets into the chamber, for the current study. A cross-sectional sketch created by Uddeholm AB provided the geometric dimensions, and CFD was used to generate a simulation experiment for the system. Fluent setup input values were derived from literature data. The primary objective of the study is to analyze the influence of varying inlet pressure and the number of discrete gas jet nozzles, on the flow behavior of the atomizing gas. Additionally, the Discrete Phase Model approach was adopted to study the interaction of particles with the gas flow. The simulation model was validated by carrying out the visualization experiment, Schlieren imaging. From the study, it was realized that the results of the numerical model showed a mismatch relative to the experimental value. This can be attributed to the discretization technique, input parameters and the numerical model employed in this study. However, the parametric study provided a qualitative analysis regarding the influence of input parameters on flow behavior. It was studied that with increasing the inlet pressure and number of discrete nozzles there is a subsequent increase in the maximum velocity attained by the atomizing gas, resulting in a decrease in velocity of melt introduced into the system. Additionally, a radial pressure gradient was observed to be present that increased in accordance with the parameters, resulting in reduction of the melt film thickness produced during pre-filming mechanism. However, the Discrete Phase Model provided evidence that with increment in the gas to melt ratio, the number of particles that get dispersed to make collision with the domain wall increased. Thus, a subsequent increase in downstream velocity was required to maintain the particles within the domain walls as the study parameters were increased.