Understanding of bath surface waves in bottom blown copper smelting furnace

In recent years, a bottom blown copper melting technology has been developed by Fangyuan Nonferrous Metals in China. The main unit of the technology is a bottom blown smelting furnace with a dimension of 4.4m in diameter and 16.5m in length. At the bottom of the furnace, there are nine lances aligned in two staggered rows, five in the upper row, 22º offset from vertical line, and four in the lower row 7º offset from vertical line. During smelting, oxygen enriched air is blown into molten bath from bottom lances and leads to different types of standing waves on bath surface. The features of the different standing waves are highly associated with bath splash, and can have an effect on refractory abrasion, matte droplet entrainment and settlement, and viscous slag tapping. This study aims to identify the types of standing waves that could occur in bottom blown furnace, summarise conditions of occurrence and analyse their amplitude and frequency to assist industrial operation