A mathematical model of an industrial Single Snorkel Refining Furnace (SSRF) has been developed to investigate dehydrogenation behaviour in the vacuum refining process. Dehydrogenation reactions were considered to take place at three sites: Ar bubble surface, bath surface, and the bulk steel. The effects of Ar bubble behaviour and H2 heterogeneous nucleation behaviour of the bulk steel on dehydrogenation were taken into account specifically. The simulation results are in good agreement with the measured industrial data. Using the model, the dehydrogenation rate at different sites and its contribution to total dehydrogenation value were evaluated in detail. The results indicated that bulk steel dehydrogenation occurred only the high concentration range, while the other two reactions participated in the whole refining process. In addition, the effect of argon flow rate on the dehydrogenation rate was also obtained and the reasonable range of argon flow rate for SSRF treatment has been recommended.
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