Formation and behaviour of bubble curtains in glass melts

Abstract

It is widely assumed that bubbles form in melts when their composition and/or gas-dissolving capacity is changed by the dissolution of refractories or sand. This phenomenon is shown by photographs of dissolving sand. In experimental invesdgadons, it was not possible to explain bubble curtains in the vicinity of refractory materials by changes in composition. Computer simulations show that such bubble curtains can be formed even at a relatively low extent of bubble growth in the glass melt. By convective flows, these bubble curtains can be distributed so that they appear to be the result of a boundary layer reaction. At a constant temperature distribution, such bubble curtains maintain their position for a very long time. In the case of heating, the bubbles are distributed over a large volume of the melt. This may suddenly cause the formation of bubbles especially in tank furnaces.