<p>The present work was to study the role of ladle glaze as apotential supplier of inclusions to the steel melt during theladle refining process. In this study, the total number ofinclusions at the beginning and at the end of the ladletreatment process was found to be increasing with ladle age,which is the number of heats, the ladle being used. Asubstantial increase in inclusion population was noticed aftera certain ladle age.</p><p>Totally four types of inclusions named as; type-1 (MgO),type-2 (spinel), type-3 (an oxide solution) and type-4 (spinelin the center surrounded by the oxide solution of type-3) wereobserved in the beginning of the ladle refining process.Thermodynamic calculation revealed that the type-3 and type-4inclusions were generated by the reactions between EAF slag andladle glaze. Even a part of inclusions of type-2 (spinel phase)could be formed by these reactions. Three types of inclusionswere found before casting, viz. type-5 (oxide solution with lowcontents of MgO and SiO2), type-6 (small MgO islands embeddedin an oxide solution) and type-7 (spinel in the centersurrounded by the oxide solution of type-5). Inclusions of bothtype-5 and type-7 were the products of the reaction betweeninclusions of type-2 and the liquid metal. On the other hand,the occurrence of pieces of MgO having sharp edges in the oxidesolution suggested that the type-6 inclusions were generated bythe ladle glaze.</p><p>A preliminary examination on the possibility of inclusionseparation by bubble floatation, experiments using cold modelswere also carried out. De-ionised water and silicon oil wereused as the bulk phase. Charcoal particles of different sizeranges were employed as the dispersed phase. The examination ofcharcoal-water-gas system indicated that the positivefloatation coefficient is not a sufficient condition for theinclusion separation. The experimental results were found to bein contradiction with the prediction of a typical model thatconsiders interfacial energies. The omitting of the drag forcewas believed to be the reason causing the failure of the modelprediction in the charcoal-water-gas system. The failure of themodel prediction suggested a need of a new model taking intoaccount interfacial energies, drag force, buoyancy force andgravity force.</p><p><b>Key words:</b>oxide inclusions, ladle metallurgy, ladleglaze, inclusion population, ladle age, interfacial tension,inclusion separation</p>

The present work was to study the role of ladle glaze as apotential supplier of inclusions to the steel melt during theladle refining process. In this study, the total number ofinclusions at the beginning and at the end of the ladletreatment process was found to be increasing with ladle age,which is the number of heats, the ladle being used. Asubstantial increase in inclusion population was noticed aftera certain ladle age. Totally four types of inclusions named as; type-1 (MgO),type-2 (spinel), type-3 (an oxide solution) and type-4 (spinelin the center surrounded by the oxide solution of type-3) wereobserved in the beginning of the ladle refining process.Thermodynamic calculation revealed that the type-3 and type-4inclusions were generated by the reactions between EAF slag andladle glaze. Even a part of inclusions of type-2 (spinel phase)could be formed by these reactions. Three types of inclusionswere found before casting, viz. type-5 (oxide solution with lowcontents of MgO and SiO2), type-6 (small MgO islands embeddedin an oxide solution) and type-7 (spinel in the centersurrounded by the oxide solution of type-5). Inclusions of bothtype-5 and type-7 were the products of the reaction betweeninclusions of type-2 and the liquid metal. On the other hand,the occurrence of pieces of MgO having sharp edges in the oxidesolution suggested that the type-6 inclusions were generated bythe ladle glaze. A preliminary examination on the possibility of inclusionseparation by bubble floatation, experiments using cold modelswere also carried out. De-ionised water and silicon oil wereused as the bulk phase. Charcoal particles of different sizeranges were employed as the dispersed phase. The examination ofcharcoal-water-gas system indicated that the positivefloatation coefficient is not a sufficient condition for theinclusion separation. The experimental results were found to bein contradiction with the prediction of a typical model thatconsiders interfacial energies. The omitting of the drag forcewas believed to be the reason causing the failure of the modelprediction in the charcoal-water-gas system. The failure of themodel prediction suggested a need of a new model taking intoaccount interfacial energies, drag force, buoyancy force andgravity force. <b>Key words:</b>oxide inclusions, ladle metallurgy, ladleglaze, inclusion population, ladle age, interfacial tension,inclusion separation / NR 20140805

In present thesis, the fundamental studies on the reaction between MgO based refractories and slag were undertaken for the development of a carbon-free bonding MgO lining material. Alumina was selected as a potential binder material. Due to MgO-Al2O3 chemical reaction, the developed refractory was bonded by MgO·Al2O3 spinel phase. To begin with, an investigation of the dissolution process of dense MgO and MgO·Al2O3 spinel in liquid slag was carried out. To obtain reliable information for dissolution study, a new experimental method was therefore developed. In this method, a cylinder was rotating centrally in a special designed container with a quatrefoil profile. This method also showed a good reliability in revealing the dissolution mechanism by quenching the whole reaction system. The experimental results showed that the dissolution process of MgO and spinel was controlled by both mass transfer and chemical reaction. It was found that the rapid dissolution of spinel was mainly because of its larger driving force. To improve the resistance against slag penetration, two aspects were studied to develop carbon-free MgO refractory. First, colloidal alumina was used and the effect of its addition into MgO matrix was investigated. The use of colloidal alumina was to form bonding products in the grain boundary of MgO. The results showed that the alumina addition greatly improved the resistance of MgO based refractory against slag penetration in comparison with the decarburized MgO-carbon refractory. It was found that the improvement of resistance was mainly related to the spinel-slag reaction products of CaO·Al2O3 and CaO·MgO·Al2O3 solid phases at the grain boundaries. Second, the effect of particle size distribution on the penetration resistance of MgO was investigated. The most profound improvement against the slag penetration was obtained by using a proper particle size distribution. The results highlighted the importance of considering the refractory structure. Experiments were undertaken to investigate the dissolution mechanism of different types of MgO based refractories in liquid slag. It was observed that the dissolution of spinel bonded MgO refractory was much slower than the decarburized MgO-carbon refractory. The primary dissolution in spinel bonded MgO refractory occurred at the slag-penetrated layer, and the removal of this layer by peeling off enhanced the dissolution rate rapidly. / <p>QC 20170918</p> / European RFCS LEANSTORY project

The present thesis was to study non-metallic inclusions during vacuum degassing in ladle treatment. Emphasize was mostly given to liquid CaO-Al2O3 inclusions. A series of industrial experiments were carried out at Uddeholm Tooling AB, Hagfors, Sweden. To gain an insight into the industrial findings, laboratory investigations were also performed. Large number of steel samples were collected and examined. Liquid calcium aluminate inclusions with low SiO2 and high SiO2 were often found with spinel inclusions before vacuum degassing. Laboratory experiments showed that spinel would react with the dissolved Ca in the liquid steel forming calcium aluminate inclusions. This laboratory results agreed with the industrial observation that spinel phase was quite often found in the center of the calcium aluminate phase. After vacuum degassing, most of the inclusions were calcium aluminate liquid inclusions. When dissolved Al level was low, 2 types of liquid calcium aluminate inclusions with considerably different SiO2 contents were found to coexist even at the end of the process. In view of the lack of the thermodynamic data for SiO2 activities in the low silica region, thermodynamic measurements were conducted in the CaO-Al2O3-SiO2-MgO system. The experimental results could reasonably explain the coexistence of the two types of the liquid oxide inclusions. While the total number of inclusions decreased during vacuum degassing, the number of bigger inclusions (&gt;11.3 μm) increased generally in used ladles. This finding was in accordance with the previous studies, wherein, ladle glaze was found to be responsible for the supply of bigger inclusions. The behaviors of several types of inclusions in liquid steel were examined using a laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM). While alumina inclusions tended to impact on each other, agglomerate and grow very quickly, none of the other types of inclusions, such as spinel and calcium aluminate was observed to agglomerate. The results of LSCM study agreed well with the industrial observation. Examination on a huge number of inclusions did not show any indication of impact and physical growth of the inclusions, except the alumina inclusions. The removal of inclusions around open-eye in a gas-stirred ladle was experimentally studied by a cold model with oil and water. Most of the simulated inclusions were brought up to the oil phase by gas-water plume. Inclusion removal into oil layer took place when the inclusions passed through the sphere-bed of the oil layer around the open-eye. A calculation showed that the contribution of metal-gas plume in inclusion removal was much larger than that of buoyancy mechanism. The results of the industrial experiments revealed that the inclusions distribution strongly depended on stirring condition. When a ladle was stirred by both gas and induction, inclusion removal near slag layer was significant. / QC 20100803

In the present thesis, the correlation between ladle glaze and non-metallic inclusions in the ladle treatment was studied. A number of industrial trials with full scale ladle and laboratory works were performed to investigate the inclusions in the ladle treatment. BaO was used as tracer in the ladle slag to investigate the effect of slag on inclusion composition and the formation of non-metallic inclusions by ladle glaze. BaO was detected in the inclusions of all followed heats. This observation showed strong evidence for the generation of non-metallic inclusions by the ladle glaze. The increase of the fractions of BaO containing inclusions and their average content of BaO in the first heat with tracer suggested that the effect of slag on the composition of inclusions was a very slow process. The detachment of ladle glaze and the chemical transformations of oxide solution in the MgO matrix were investigated. The experimental results evidently showed that the ladle glaze could be the source of inclusions continually during the ladle treatment. Samples of liquid oxide solution to simulate the liquid oxide inclusions carried over from EAF were equilibrated with molten steel under controlled atmosphere. The results along with thermodynamic calculation suggested that the SiO2 content of inclusions from EAF could be considerably reduced by dissolved aluminium in the steel. This would explain the vanishing of inclusions containing high SiO2 content after deoxidation. Due to the lack of experimental data, the viscosities of slags in the Al2O3-CaO-MgO-SiO2 system were measured using the rotating cylinder method in the temperature range of 1720 to 1910 K. Eight different slag compositions related to the secondary steel making operations were selected. Viscosities in this system and its sub-systems were expressed as a function of temperature and composition based on the viscosity model developed earlier at KTH. The activities of oxide components in the Al2O3-CaO-MgO-SiO2 systems at 1873 K were measured by equilibrating liquid slag and metal. Either silicon or copper was used as the metal phase and the oxygen partial pressure was controlled with different mixing rates of Ar and CO gas flow in equilibrium with graphite. Iso-activity lines were drawn from the measured activity values in the isothermal section of the slag systems. Nine series of industrial trials were carried out using the same ladle in each series to examine the effect of ladle slag on the number of non-metallic inclusions in the next heat. It was found that the number of inclusions increased with SiO2 content of the ladle slag in the previous heat. No clear trends were found for the effects of viscosity and MgO activity of the previous slag on the number of inclusions. Theoretical analysis based on the experimental results suggested that the formation of 2CaO∙SiO2 followed but the dusting of the compound made the refractory more porous, which was reasonable for the number of non-metallic inclusions.