The low density and high specific strength of magnesium alloys have created a great deal of interest in the use of these alloys in the automotive and aerospace industries and in portable electronics. All of these industries deal with applications in which weight is extremely important. However, an obstacle to overcome when using magnesium alloys in engineering applications are their unsatisfactory corrosion properties. This thesis is devoted to the atmospheric corrosion of the two magnesium alloys AZ91D and AM50, in particular the ways the microstructure and exposure parameters of these alloys influence their corrosion behaviour. The work includes both laboratory and field studies. The results obtained show that the microstructure is of vital importance for the corrosion behaviour under atmospheric conditions. The microstructure of magnesium-aluminium alloys contains different intermetallic phases, e.g. Al8Mn5 and β-Mg17Al12. The local nobility of these intermetallic phases was measured on a submicron level in an atmospheric environment. It was shown that particles of the Al-Mn type exhibit the highest Volta potential among the microstructure constituents of the AZ91D magnesium alloy. Further, it was shown that the Volta potential was highly dependent on the aluminium content of the magnesiumaluminium phases in the surface layer. When thin electrolyte layers are present, CO2 diffuses readily to the surface forming magnesium carbonate, hydromagnesite. The CO2 lowers the pH in areas on the surface that are alkaline due to the cathodic reaction. This stabilises the aluminium-containing surface film, the result being increased corrosion protection of phases rich in aluminium. Both in the laboratory and under field conditions the corrosion attack was initiated in large α-phase grains, which is explained by the lower aluminium content in these grains. The thin electrolyte film, which is formed under atmospheric conditions, decreases the possibility of galvanic coupling of alloy constituents located at larger distances from each other. Thus the cathodic process is in most cases located in the eutectic α-/β phase close to the α-phases, instead of in intermetallic Al-Mn particles, even though the driving force for the initiation of the corrosion attack in Al-Mn particles should be high, due to their high nobility. / <p>QC 20100802</p>

Of all coke properties the influence of the catalytic mineral matter on reactivity of metallurgical cokes is least understood. There is limited information about the form of minerals in the metallurgical cokes and no information about their relative concentration. A comprehensive study was undertaken for characterisation of mineral matter in coke (qualitative and quantitative), which enabled quantification of the effect of catalytic minerals on the reaction rate, and establishment of the effect of gasification on the mineral phases. Also, the relative importance of coke properties on the gasification reaction rate was determined. The reactivity experiments were performed at approximately 900??C using 100% CO2 under chemically controlled conditions. The mineralogical composition of the investigated cokes was found to vary greatly as did the levels of catalytic mineral phases. These were identified to be metallic iron, iron sulfides and iron oxides. The gasification reaction rate at the initial stages was strongly influenced by the content of catalytic mineral phases and also by the particle size of the catalytic mineral matter. The reaction rate increased as the contact surface between catalyst and carbon matrix increased. Catalytic mineral phases showed a strong influence on the reaction rate at early stages of reaction. But their influence diminished during gasification. At later stages of reaction the influence of micropore surface area became more important. The influence of the catalytic mineral phases diminished during gasification because the catalyst was inactivated to some degree and the contact surface between the catalyst and carbon matrix diminished due to the strong gasification of the carbon around the catalyst particles. The partial inactivation of the catalytic mineral phases occurred because metallic iron and pyrrhotite were oxidised by CO2 to iron oxide, and in turn iron oxide reacted with other mineral phases, which it is associated with, to form minerals that are not catalysts. It is noteworthy that a significant percentage of the mineral matter present in the investigated cokes was amorphous (44 - 75%). The iron, potassium and sodium present in the amorphous phase did not appear to catalyse gasification, but their potential contribution to gasification could not be completely excluded.

The liquid steel sampling method is one of the commonly used procedures in monitoring the steelmaking process. Besides it can be used for analyzing the dissolved alloys, hydrogen content and oxygen content, it can be also employed to monitor the inclusion characteristics at the steelmakings. Here, a crucial point is that the steel sampler should be filled and the metal solidifies without changing the inclusion characteristics. Therefore, the objective of this work is to fundamentally understand the liquid steel sampling process by means of analyzing and modeling the two-phase flow during the sampler filling process, and verifying the mathematical model by using the experimental data. The present dissertation presents an experimental and theoretical study of the filling process of both the lollipop-shaped sampler and the rectangular-shaped sampler. Firstly, a physical modeling by using a water model has been carried out to fundamentally investigate the flow pattern inside the sampler vessels during its filling. The flow patterns were obtained by a PIV system. Then, a mathematical model has been built to theoretically understand the phenomena. The commercial CFD code was used. Here, different turbulence model have been compared between the realizable k-ε turbulence model and Wilcox k-ω turbulence model. It concludes that the Wilcox k-ω turbulence model agrees well with the PIV measurements.HH Thus, the preferred it was further employed to predict the turbulent flow inside the production lollipop-shaped sampler fillings. It is important to find that the average collision volume in the production steel sampler without solidification at filling is about 30 times higher than that in a ladle furnace. In the end, the whole sampling system was modeled. The initial solidification during the filling was taken into account. Focus was on the influence of the initial solidification on the inclusion concentrations. A discrete phase model was used to simulate the movement of inclusions in the liquid steel. Some selected different sized primary inclusions that exist in the ladles at a steelmaking process were simulated. The same method of studying the filling procedure of the lollipop-shaped sampler was further applied to comprehensively investigate the rectangular-shaped sampler. / QC 20100908

The blast furnace is still the dominant form of iron production, but over the years, direct reduction methods have increased due to a number of reasons. Overall, iron production methods have optimal requirements with respect to the feed materials especially iron ore. In this study, tests were carried out on Muko iron ore from Uganda to analyse its suitability to meet the feed requirements of today's dominant iron production methods. More specifically, the Tumbler, Abrasion, and Shatter Indices of the ore were determined. In addition, porosity, thermoanalysis, and reducibility tests were performed. Overall, the Muko ore was found to have good mechanical properties exemplified with tumble and shatter index data &gt;89.0 wt% and &lt;2.5 wt%, respectively. Furthermore, its reducibility at 0.87%/min is within the acceptable range as a natural material feed for blast furnace and direct reduction furnaces. Also, the energy requirement for heating the ore to 1100°C was found to be higher in the samples containing a wider size range of irregular grains and the largest contaminations. In summary, it is concluded that the Muko iron ore has good physical and metallurgical properties to serve as a natural material for the blast furnace and direct reduction furnaces. / <p>QC 20130531</p> / Sustainable Technology Development in the Lake Victoria Region

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 248-256.

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Current methods of solar-grade silicon (SG-Si) production are energy intensive and costly. The possibility of using metallurgical techniques for refining metallurgical-grade Si (MG-Si) to SG-Si has been investigated. The main steps in the metallurgical refining route include alloying with copper to produce a 50-50wt% Cu-Si alloy, controlled solidification, crushing, and acid leaching. The controlled solidification process involved 5 variations to determine the best process to maximize Si dendrite agglomeration in the sample and produce the purest Si. This was determined by using various techniques, such as: optical imaging, dendrite analysis, EPMA and SEM analysis and ICP analysis. The crushing and acid leaching steps were carried out to remove the unwanted Cu3Si eutectic from the pure Si dendrite phase. Upon completion of the analysis techniques, the optimal cooling method was determined to be the top cooled, 0.5°C/min sample.