Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (M Eng (Metallurgical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering / unrestricted

QC 20101126

<p> The dominant slag-metal reaction site in AC electro-slag remelting (ESR) has been directly determined by estimating the rate of sulphur transfer at the electrode tip/slag and metal pool/slag interfaces. In this investigation, negligible sulphur transfer has been assumed at the droplet/slag interface, and the basis for such assumption is discussed. Using a 5.825" diameter mould and CaF2-CaO slags, it has been established that the electrode tip/slag interface is the dominant reaction site. Calculations indicate that the pool sulphur is close to equilibrium with the slag. The importance of all six reaction sites in AC ESR are discussed. The results indicate the importance of the slag/atmosphere interface, especially when using slags of low lime content. Conventonal overall sulphur balances have been carried out and the results are in agreement with the rates obtained at the different interfaces, thus indicating internal consistency of the results. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

<p> Iron-vanadium alloys were levitation melted and equilibrated at controlled temperatures with water vapour/hydrogen atmospheres of controlled composition, quenched and analysed for oxygen. The effect of vanadium on the behaviour of oxygen has been expressed in terms of first order free energy, enthalpy and entropy interaction parameters. </p> <p> The reduction of phosphorus from synthetic blast furnace slags by carbon saturated iron was studied under laboratory conditions. The rate of phosphorus transfer was determined and the results have been interpreted in terms of chemical reaction control at the slag/metal interface. </p> <p> The dephosphorisation of induction melted mild steel by synthetic basic slags was investigated. The rate of dephosphorisation was determined and the results have been interpreted in terms of mass transfer control in the slag phase. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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In gas stirred steelmaking ladles, entrainment of slag into metal and vice versa takes place. The slag entrainment has been shown to abruptly increase the mass transfer rates of refining reactions through high temperature and water modeling studies of the past. However such an effect has not been correlated with the degree of entrainment, since the latter has not been quantified in terms of operating parameters like gas injection rate and fluid properties. Much of the past works are limited to finding the critical conditions for onset of entrainment. The difficulty lies in measuring the degree of entrainment in industrial ladles or even in a water model. Mathematical modeling is also challenging due to the complexity of the multiphase phenomena. So in this thesis, a modular mathematical modeling approach is presented wherein the phenomena of slag entrainment into metal is resolved into four aspects, models developed for each and finally integrated to study its role. The individual models are (1) multiphase large eddy simulations to simulate slag entrainment in a narrow domain that receives its boundary conditions from (2) single phase RANS simulation of a full ladle, (3) a Lagrangian particle tracking method to compute the residence times of slag droplets in metal phase and (4) a kinetic model that integrates the above three models to compute mass transfer rate as a function of degree of entrainment. Mass transfer rate predictions comparable to a literature correlation were obtained. This supports the modeling approach and also the assessment of role of various system parameters on entrainment characteristics. In essence, the present work shows a systematic approach to model and study the complex multiphase phenomena. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The entrainment of liquid slag into liquid steel in gas stirred-steelmaking ladles is known to increase the rate of refining drastically. However, there is lack of correlation between degree of entrainment and ladle operating conditions, which this thesis addresses through mathematical modeling.

In order to obtain a good performance and predict the properties of alloys, it is necessary to control the contents of alloying elements and to evaluate a largest inclusion in the product. Thus, improved techniques for both control of alloy elements and evaluation of the large inclusion in products will enable us to provide better qualities of the final products. In the case of one Ni alloy, (NW2201, &gt;99 mass%Ni), the precise control technique of Mg content is important to obtain a good hot-workability. Hereby, the slag/metal reaction experiments in a laboratory have been carried out at 1873 K, so that the equilibrium Mg content and kinetic behavior can be understood. More addition of Al in the melt as well as higher CaO/Al2O3 value of slag resulted in higher amount of Mg content in Ni. For the same conditions of Al content and slag composition, the mass transfer coefficient of Mg in molten Ni was determined as 0.0175 cm/s. By applying several countermeasures regarding the equilibrium and kinetic process to the plant trials, the value of the standard deviation for the Mg content in an alloy was decreased till 0.003 from 0.007 mass%. The size measurements of largest inclusions in the various alloys (an Fe-10mass%Ni alloy, 17CrMo4 of low-C steel and 304 stainless steel) were carried out by using statistics of extreme values (SEV). In order to improve the prediction accuracy of this method, three dimensional (3D) observations were applied after electrolytic extraction. In addition, the relationship of extreme value distribution (EVD) in the different stages of the production processes was studied. This was done to predict the largest inclusion in the products at an early stage of the process. A comparison of EVDs for single Al2O3 inclusion particles obtained by 2D and 3D observations has clarified that 3D observations result in more accurate EVD because of the absence of pores. Also, it was found that EVD of clusters were larger than that of single particles. In addition, when applying SEV to sulfide inclusions with various morphologies, especially for elongated sulfides, the real maximum sizes of them were able to be measured by 3D observations. Geometrical considerations of these particles clarified the possibility of an appearance of the real maximum inclusion sizes on a cross section to be low. The EVDs of deoxidation products in 304 stainless steel showed good agreement between the molten steel and slab samples of the same heat. Furthermore, the EVD of fractured inclusion lengths in the rolled steel were estimated from the initial sizes of undeformed inclusions which were equivalent with fragmented inclusions. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of inclusion width, EVD obtained from perpendicular cross section of strips was found to be useful to predict the largest inclusion in the final product with less time consumption compared to a slab sample. In summary, it can be concluded that the improvement of the techniques by this study has enabled to precisely control of alloy compositions as well as to evaluate the largest inclusion size in them more accurately and at an earlier stage of the production process. / QC 20101222