Rapid iron melting initiation and molten slag separation which take place in carbon composite iron ores are quite interesting phenomena, but their mechanisms have not been established yet. Since the size of carbonaceous material and iron ore particles is tiny in carbon composite iron ores, molten slag can dynamically play a critical role in the iron melting initiation and the slag separation. The behavior of the molten slag was clarified by direct observation of phenomena occurring in a simplified carbon composite agglomerate sample (iron disk-slag particle-graphite or coke particle) via a confocal laser scanning microscope combined with an image furnace. It was found that the molten slag wetting induced the iron melting initiation by attracting graphite or coke to iron and the molten slag separation took place with iron melting propagation. However, the high content of coke ash could suppress the iron melting initiation. In addition, the mechanism of molten slag separation from Fe-C melt was verified by phase field modeling.KEY WORDS: iron melting initiation; slag wetting; slag separation; coke ash; carbon composite iron ore; confocal laser scanning microscope; phase field method.
1099© 2010 ISIJ
ExperimentalIron disks (diameter: 1.0 mm, purity: 99.99%) were prepared by polishing sliced iron particles from an iron rod. Thickness of the iron disks was 0.5 mm. Graphite disks (diameter: 1 mm; high purity) were made by punching a graphite plate (thickness: 0.5 mm). Cokes fragments (mesh: Ͻ1.0 mm) were prepared by crushing the original cokes (mesh: Ͻ60 mm), whose composition is given in Table 1. In order to know the ash effect on the wetting behavior, higher ash content containing cokes were made by the reaction of the broken cokes particles with CO 2 gas at 1 273 K for 20 min. Slag was prepared by heating mixture of oxide powders (CaO: 22.2%, Al 2 O 3 : 15.1%, SiO 2 : 62.7%) up to 1 673 K in a platinum crucible by using a muffle furnace. According to a literature, 11) the melting temperature of the slag is around the eutectic temperature, 1 446 K, which was confirmed by direct observation via a confocal laser scanning microscope. A piece of, approximately, 0.8 mg slag was positioned between an iron disk and a graphite disk or a fragment of coke on an alumina plate as shown in Fig. 1(a). The plate was slightly coated with boron nitride by a BN spray in order to prevent the slag from reacting with the alumina crucible. "In-situ" observation of the phenomena within iron, slag and carbonaceous material was conducted. The sample was heated up to 1 523 K at the rate of 200 K/min under the atmosphere of purified Ar. The behavior of the particles and the slag were recorded in a personal computer at a frame rate of 15 frames/s.The present experiment consisted of two sub-experiments. The first one was designed that the wetting behaviors of CaO-Al 2 O 3 -SiO 2 slag would be compared for different types of carbonaceous material: graphite, coke and reacted coke. Since ash in coke plays a critical role in slag wetting at the in...