Modeling of bubble removal from glassmelts at fining temperatures

Abstract

A new model based on the quasi-stationary approximation is developed for removal of gas bubbles from glassmelts due to buoyant rise of bubbles. The growth and rising of multicomponent gas bubbles in glassmelts are examined from the view point of interfacial mass transfer. It is shown that the models for rising bubbles in glassmelts available in the literature are based on the quasi-steady approximation which is not very reasonable. The growth of a gas bubble initially consisting of nitrogen only is studied in a glassmelt whose diffusing gases are oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, sulfide and nitrogen. The proposed model based on the unsteady-state mass transfer (the quasi-stationary approximation) is compared with the model based on the steady-state mass transfer (the quasisteady approximation). The former, which provides more rational and better descriptions of bubble behavior in refming processes compared with the latter, predicts rather shorter refming times than the latter.