Precipitation modeling of inclusions at different stages of the steelmaking process

Abstract

Steelmaking processes are continuously improved in order to attend the increasing requirements of the cleanness of the liquid metal. At the refining stages, as deoxidation and desulphuration, the formation of inclusions of oxides and sulphides is promoted, which on the other hand, are the most frequent inclusions. In this work a mathematical simulator of the precipitation and chemical composition of non-metallic inclusions at different steps of the steelmaking process is presented. To this purpose, it is assumed that inclusions formed by reoxidation can be simulated by increasing arbitrarily the oxygen levels consumed by the residual elements (aluminium, calcium, etc.) and starting the chemical reaction with less powerful deoxidants (silicium and manganese). Accordingly, different operative conditions can be simulated. Numerical predictions are compared with experimental results of industrial trials, as well as results included in the bibliography.