Investigation of Interactions between Liquid Iron Containing Oxygen and Aluminosilicate Refractories

Abstract: The present work was initiated to investigate runnerrefractory corrosion by molten steel. The aim was to understandthe mechanism of inclusion formation during ingot casting. Thework is also of interest to other unit processes in steelmaking, where refractory corrosion and erosion are seriousproblems. The oxides investigated in the present work werealumina, silica and mullite, which are the main components inrunner refractory. In addition, industrial refractory materialwas investigated.Two types of experiments were conducted. The first, "rodexperiments", involved dipping a rod of the oxide into an ironbath containing varying amounts of oxygen. After quenching, therods were examined through SEM/EDS analysis. In the second setsof experiments, the wetting behaviour of molten iron onrefractory oxides was investigated by means of the sessile-dropmethod. The reactions were followed in static as well asdynamic modes through contact angle measurements. Temperatureand oxygen partial pressure were, besides time the parametersthat were investigated in the present study. Oxygen partialpressure was defined by introducing a gas mixture of CO-CO2-Ar into the furnace.The experimental studies were preceded by a thermodynamicinvestigation of the refractory systems, in order to get afundamental understanding of the reactions that occurred. Phasestability diagrams for the systems were constructed based onthe data available in literature. The diagrams showed that thereaction between alumina and oxygen containing iron would leadto the formation of hercynite at a critical oxygen level in themetal. With silica, the reaction would lead to the formation offayalite. In the mullite case, the reaction products would behercynite at moderate oxygen levels in the melt and hercynitetogether with fayalite at slightly higher oxygenpotentials.For all substrates, the contact angles started decreasing asthe surface-active oxygen came into contact with the iron drop.At a critical level of oxygen in the metal, a reaction productstarted forming at the drop/substrate interface. The reactionproducts were identified through SEM/EDS analysis and werefound to be in agreement with thermodynamic predictions. In thecase of SiO2substrate, there were also deep erosion tracksalong the periphery of the drops, probably due to Marangoniflow.Alumina-graphite refractory reactions with molten iron werealso investigated through Monte Carlo simulations. The resultsshowed that, with increased alumina content in the refractory,the carbon dissolution into the melt decreased. Further, thewetting behaviour at the interface was found to be an importantfactor to considerably reduce the carbon dissolution fromalumina-graphite refractories.The experimentation was extended to the commercialrefractories used in the ingot casting process at UddeholmTooling AB, Sweden. The analysis of the plant trial samplesindicates that there is less likelihood of a strong corrosionof the refractories that could lead to a significant populationof inclusions in the end product. The impact of the presentexperimental results on refractory erosion is discussed. Theimportance of the results to clean steel processing anddevelopment of new generation refractories are alsopresented.