Loss mechanism of micro-carbon ferromanganese during RH refining

Abstract

It is of great significance to improve the yield of ferroalloy for steelmaking to reduce cost and save energy. In this paper a kind of loss mechanism of micro-carbon ferromanganese which has micro content of carbon during RH refining of interstitial free steel was investigated. The flow field of argon gas in the RH degassing vessel was investigated through numerical simulation. Through force analysis and particle tracking of the micro-carbon ferromanganese, it was found that microcarbon ferromanganese with size smaller than the critical value of 1.01 millimeters has a large probability to be carried away into the RH vacuum pipeline. The micro-carbon ferromanganese of small particle was easily lost into the vacuum pipe by the upward flow of argon gas. Industrial experiment was conducted and a novel mechanism was confirmed that increasing the vacuum pressure during addition of the micro-carbon ferromanganese could improve the yield greatly.