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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
41

Theoretical and experimental studies of surface and interfacial phenomena involving steel surfaces

Cao, Weimin January 2010 (has links)
The present work was initiated to investigate the surface- and interfacial phenomena for iron and slag/iron systems. The aim was to understand the mechanism of the effect of surface active elements on surface and interfacial properties. In the present work, the adsorption of oxygen and sulfur on iron surface as well as adatom surface movements were studied based on the ab initio method. BCC iron melting phenomena and sulfur diffusion in molten iron were investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. The impact of oxygen potential on interfacial mass transfer was carried out by X-ray sessile drop method. Firstly, the structural, electronic and magnetic properties as well as thermodynamic stability were studied by Density functional theory (DFT). The hollow site was found to be the most stable adsorption site both for oxygen and sulfur adsorbed on iron (100) surface, which is in agreement with the experiment. The relaxation geometries and difference charge density of the different adsorption systems were calculated to analyze the interaction and bonding properties between Fe and O/S. It can be found that the charge redistribution was related to the geometry relaxation. In addition, the sulfur coverage is considered from a quarter of one monolayer (1ML) to a full monolayer. It was found that the work function and its change Δφ increased with S coverage, in very good agreement with experiment. Due to a recent discussion regarding the influence of charge transfer on Δφ, it is shown in the present work that the increase in Δφ can be explained by the increasing surface dipole moment as a function of S coverage. S strongly interacts with the surface Fe layer and decreases the surface magnetic moment as the S coverage increases. Secondly, a two dimensional (2D) gas model based on density functional calculations combined with thermodynamics and statistical physics, was proposed to simulate the movement of the surface active elements, viz. oxygen and sulfur atoms on the Fe(100) surface. The average velocity of oxygen and sulfur atoms was found to be related to the vibration frequencies and energy barrier in the final expression developed. The calculated results were based on the density function and thermodynamics & statistical physics theories. In addition, this 2D gas model can be used to simulate and give an atomic view of the complex interfacial phenomena in the steelmaking refining process. A distance dependent atomistic Monte Carlo model was developed for studying the iron melting phenomenon as well as effect of sulfur on molten iron surface. The effect of boundary conditions on the melting process of an ensemble of bcc iron atoms has been investigated using a Lennard-Jones distance dependent pair potential. The stability of melting process was energetically and spatially analyzed under fixed wall and free surface conditions and the effects of short and long-range interactions were discussed. The role of boundary conditions was significantly reduced when long-range interactions were used in the simulation. This model was further developed for investigating the effect of sulfur on molten iron surface. A combination of fixed wall and free surface boundary condition was found to well-represent the molten bath configuration while considering the second nearest neighbor interactions. Calculations concerning the diffusion of sulfur on molten surface were carried out as a function of temperature and sulfur concentration. Our results show that sulfur atoms tended to diffuse away from the surface into the liquid bulk and the diffusion rate increased by increasing temperature. Finally, impact of oxygen potential on sulfur mass transfer at slag/metal interface, was carried out by X-ray sessile drop method. The movement of sulfur at the slag/metal interface was monitored in dynamic mode at temperature 1873 K under non-equilibrium conditions. The experiments were carried out with pure iron and CaO-SiO2-Al2O3-FeO slag (alumina saturated at the experimental temperature) contained in alumina crucibles with well-controlled partial pressures of oxygen and sulfur. As the partial pressure of oxygen increased, it was found that interfacial velocity as well as the oscillation amplitude increased. The thermo-physical and thermo-chemical properties of slag were also found to influence interfacial velocity. / QC 20101123
42

Investigations on the Oxidation of Iron-chromium and Iron-vanadium Molten Alloys

Wang, Haijuan January 2010 (has links)
With the progress of high alloy steelmaking processes, it is essential to minimize the loss of valuable metals, like chromium and vanadium during the decarburization process, from both economic as well as environmental view points. One unique technique to realize this aim, used in the present work, is the decarburization of high alloy steel grades using oxygen with CO2 in order to reduce the partial pressure of oxygen. In the present work, the investigation on the oxidation of iron-chromium and iron-vanadium molten alloys under CO2-O2 mixtures was carried out and presented in this dissertation. For oxidation study on Fe-Cr molten alloy with CO2-O2 mixtures, on the basis of thermodynamic analysis, energy balance calculation and modeling results, experimental validation in laboratory was carried out, and later on, the oxidation kinetics of Fe-Cr and Fe-Cr-C melts under controlled partial pressure of oxygen was investigated. Thermodynamics calculation and energy balance estimation demonstrated that, it is possible to use CO2 or CO2-O2 mixtures as decarburizers during EAF process and high initial carbon contents in the steel can be adopted at the beginning in order to reduce the cost. A generic model has been developed to describe the overall process kinetics prevailing in metallurgical reactors containing liquid metal and gas bubbles. This model is general and can be extended further to consider any gas liquid reactions in any chemical engineering reactor, and especially the metallurgical ones, like AOD. In the present dissertation, the model is applied in predicting the evolution of Cr and C contents in a Fe-C-Cr melt during injection of different O2-CO2 mixtures. The related simulation results illustrated that CO2 is efficient in Cr retention. In order to verify the modeling results, 1kg induction furnace experiments were carried out in the present laboratory. The results indicated that the predictions of the model are in good agreement with the experimental results. Meanwhile, the experimental results indicated that the Cr-losses can be significantly lowered by replacing the oxygen with CO2 in the injected gas, specifically for Fe-Cr-C melts with carbon levels higher than about 0.8 mass%. Subsequently, the oxidation kinetics of Fe-Cr and Fe-Cr-C melts was investigated under different CO2-O2 mixtures. It is indicated that, the oxidation rate is controlled by the chemical reaction at the initial stage and the reaction rate can be expressed as  at the Cr range of 11-21 mass% in the Fe-Cr melt. For oxidation study on Fe-V liquid alloy, the investigation of the oxidation kinetics was carried out under CO2-O2 mixtures, which is followed by the study on thermodynamic properties of vanadium containing slags. During oxidation of Fe-V melt, in the case of alloys with vanadium contents exceeding 10 mass%, there exists an incubation period before the chemical reactions prevail the process. In addition, the ‘incubation time’ increased with the increase of temperature and the vanadium content, whereas it decreased with the increase of oxygen partial pressure in the oxidant gas. High-temperature mass spectrometric method was used to determine the activity of the vanadium oxide in CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-V2O3 slags, whereas, the oxidation states of vanadium in the CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-VOxslag system was studied by XANES method. The results indicated that, higher basicities stabilize higher vanadium oxidation state, whereas, higher temperature stabilizes lower vanadium oxidation state. The present work, which was carried out within the ECO-STEELMAKING project funded by MISTRA via Jernkontoret is expected to lead to implementation of some modifications in high alloy steel production based on fundamental concepts towards more environment-friendly steel processing. / <p>QC20100628</p>
43

Recovery of iron and manganese values from metallurgical slags by the oxidation route

Semykina, Anna January 2010 (has links)
In the modern practice, a sustainable development strategy in a domain of wasteutilization is shifting its focus from a general completeness of recycling to a morespecific attention to efficiently utilize elements in the wastes. This is well-illustrated bythe steelmaking slag industries. The major waste product from the steelmaking practiceis slag and its main constituents are: CaO, SiO2, Al2O3, MnO, FeO and so on. The mainfield of application for the steelmaking slags is civil engineering, especially for road andwaterway construction. However, a significant amount of the slag remains in the dumps,damaging the environment as well as requiring a land for secure storage. Efficientrecycling of these materials is of increasing interest worldwide as a result of increasingsustainability in processes with respect to increasing raw material costs and wastereduction.In order to find a practical solution, joint efforts are currently made at the RoyalInstitute of Technology, Sweden and National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine. Theconcept is based on transformation of non-magnetic wüstite (FeO) to magneticmagnetite (Fe3O4) using an oxidizing atmosphere was proposed.In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed way of slag utilization, experiments onthe ternary CaO-FeO-SiO2 and quaternary CaO-FeO-SiO2-MnO slags systems,accompanied by thermodynamic and kinetic modelling, were performed. The crystalprecipitation during synthetic slag oxidation was observed by Confocal Scanning LaserMicroscopy (CSLM). Precipitated phases were found to be magnetite and manganeseferrite in the spinel form.Obtained magnetite and manganese ferrite can be separated from the slag by magneticseparation.The formation of nanosize manganese ferrite from the CaO-FeO-SiO2-MnO slag systemduring oxidation was investigated. Experiments were conducted in a horizontalresistance furnace in an oxidizing atmosphere (air). The final product was analysed by Xraydiffraction (XRD). The particles size of the manganese ferrite was estimated by theScherrer formula and was found to be of the order of 23-25 nm. In order to get anunderstanding of the magnetic properties of the manganese ferrite recovered from slagtreatment, it was necessary to synthesize a reference compound from pure precursors.The MnFe2O4 nanopowder was synthesized by the oxalate route. The size effects on themagnetic properties of manganese ferrite particles were investigated.IIThe potential way of the magnetite particles separation from liquid slags was investigatedby cold model studies. The experimental technique of mobilising non-conducting,nonmagnetic particles in conducting liquid in crossed electric and magnetic fields wasinvestigated in order to find the way of the particle separation from the liquidsteelmaking slags. The effects of the current density, magnetic field, size and shape ofthe particle on the particle velocity under action of the electromagnetic buoyancy force(EBF) in the electrolyte were analyzed. / QC 20100916
44

Thermal energy management and chemical reaction investigation of micro-proton exchange membrane fuel cell and fuel cell system using finite element modelling

McGee, Seán January 2015 (has links)
Fuel cell systems are becoming more commonplace as a power generation method and are being researched, developed, and explored for commercial use, including portable fuel cells that appear in laptops, phones, and of course, chargers. This thesis examines a model constructed on inspiration from the myFC PowerTrekk, a portable fuel cell charger, using COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element analysis software. As an educational tool and in the form of zero-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional models, an investigation was completed into the geometric construction, air conditions and compositions, and product materials with a best case scenario completed that summarizes the results identified. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that polyoximetylen and high-density polyethylene were considered as possible materials for the majority of the product, though a more thorough investigation is needed. Air flow of above 10 m/s, air water vapour mass fraction below 50% and initial temperature between 308K and 298K was considered in this best scenario. Suggestions on future expansions to this project are also given in the conclusion.

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