RESUMEN
The article presents the results of research carried out using a water model of a refining ladle for the Fe-Si ferroalloys treatment. These studies were aimed at improving the efficiency of refining and homogenization of liquid Fe-Si ferroalloy in the refining ladle by using a new method of blowing gas through a system of nozzles installed at the bottom of the ladle. The obtained results allowed to determine the proper location of the plug at the bottom of the refining ladle and the possibility of using combined blowing. The tests were carried out for a refining ladle with a capacity of 3 m3 using a physical model on a linear scale of 1:3. The gas flow rate used in the model corresponded proportionally to the value previously used in industrial practice and amounted to 26.8 l/min. Experiments were performed for both combined blowing applications and through a purging plug at the bottom of the ladle. In the case of combined blowing, the volume of the gas stream was divided into two blowing sources (lance and purging plug). As a result of laboratory tests, one of the variants was selected and tested in industrial conditions. These studies confirmed the improvement in the efficiency of refining treatment of the FeSi alloy in terms of reducing the carbon and aluminum content in the alloy.x.
RESUMEN
PURPOSE: Brachytherapy (BT), due to rapid dose fall off and minor set-up errors, should be superior to external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for treatment of lesions in difficult locations like nose and earlobe. Evidences in this field are scarce. We describe computed tomography (CT) based surface mould BT for non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC), and compare its conformity, dose coverage, and tissue sparing ability to EBRT. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We describe procedure of preparation of surface mould applicator and dosimetry parameters of BT plans, which were implemented in 10 individuals with NMSC of nose and earlobe. We evaluated dose coverage by minimal dose to 90% of planning target volume (PTV) (D90), volumes of PTV receiving 90-150% of prescribed dose (PD) (VPTV90-150), conformal index for 90 and 100% of PD (COIN90, COIN100), dose homogeneity index (DHI), dose nonuniformity ratio (DNR), exposure of organs. Prospectively, we created CT-based photons and electrons plans. We compared conformity (COIN90, COIN100), dose coverage of PTV (D90, VPTV90, VPTV100), volumes of body receiving 10-90% of PD (V10-V90) of EBRT and BT plans. RESULTS: We obtained mean BT-DHI = 0.76, BT-DNR = 0.23, EBRT-DHI = 1.26. We observed no significant differences in VPTV90 and D90 between BT and EBRT. Mean BT-VPTV100 (89.4%) was higher than EBRT-VPTV100 (71.2%). Both COIN90 (BT-COIN90 = 0.46 vs. EBRT-COIN90 = 0.21) and COIN100 (BT-COIN100 = 0.52 vs. EBRT-COIN100 = 0.26) were superior for BT plans. We observed more exposure of normal tissues for small doses in BT plans (V10, V20), for high doses in EBRT plans (V70, V90). CONCLUSIONS: Computed tmography-based surface mould brachytherapy for superficial lesions on irregular surfaces is a highly conformal method with good homogeneity. Brachytherapy is superior to EBRT in those locations in terms of conformity and normal tissue sparing ability in high doses.