1993 Volume 33 Issue 5 Pages 577-582
Iron suspension is formed in slag when gas bubbles pass through molten iron/slag interface. This paper proposes a model to explain iron droplet formation and to estimate thereby the behavior of the droplets in slag.
When a gas bubble passes through molten iron/slag interface, an iron film is considered to be formed on the bubble surface. It was predicted that the film reached a constant thickness within 0.5 s at the longest. The probable range of the mass of the iron droplet formed from the film was evaluated with the thickness and the surface area of the film. The experimental values of the mass of droplet fell within the predicted range. The movement of the iron droplets in the slag phase was estimated taking the surface energies of bubble and iron film as energy source. The penetration distance and the residence time of droplets in the slag phase were evaluated from 1 to 6 cm and from 1 to 0.1 s, respectively. These small values suggest possible high speed recirculation of iron droplets between the iron and slag phases through the interface.
