Modeling and control of surface gravity waves in a model of a copper converter

Abstract

Undesirable splashing appears in copper converters when air is injected into the molten matte to trigger the conversion process. We consider here a cylindrical container horizontally placed and containing water, where gravity waves on the liquid surface are generated due to water injection through a lateral submerged nozzle. The fluid dynamics in a transversal section of the converter is modeled by a 2-D inviscid potential flow involving a gravity wave equation with local damping on the liquid surface. Once the model is established, using a finite element method, the corresponding natural frequencies and normal modes are numerically computed in the absence of injection, and the solution of the system with injection is obtained using the spectrum. If a finite number of modes is considered, this approximation leads to a system of ordinary differential equations where the input is represented by the fluid injection. The dynamics is simulated as perturbations around a constant fluid injection solution, which is the desired operating state of the system, considering that the conversion process does not have to be stopped or seriously affected by the control. The solution is naturally unstable without control and the resulting increase of amplitude of the surface waves are assimilable to the splashing inside the converter. We show numerically that a variable flow around the operating injection is able to sensibly reduce these waves. This control is obtained by a LQG feedback law by measuring the elevation of the free surface at the point corresponding to the opposite extreme to where the nozzle injection is placed.