Pickling Tank Process: Influence of Flow Turbulence

During the production of hot rolled steel sheet a thin layer of scale is formed which needs to be removed to allow further processing of the steel sheet. The most common procedure for descaling is acid pickling which can be performed continuously or semi-continuously. In industrial application of the pickling process a compromise between a uniform and completely descaled surface of high quality and high performance of the pickling plant has to be achieved. Besides chemical, electrochemical and thermal parameters flow characteristics of the acid in the pickling tank influences the whole process as well. In this work, the influence of the acid flow on the progress of the pickling process is analyzed by theoretical and experimental investigations.