Interfacial Phenomena and Thermophysical Properties of Molten Steel and Oxides - Fundamental Research of Steel Processing using Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF)-

Abstract

In the present-day steel processing, interfacial phenomena between molten steel and oxides, which are called slag or mold flux, play important roles in materials design. Therefore, interfacial tension must be known for process controlling. From this requirement, we proposed the interfacial tension measurement technique between molten steel and oxides using the modified oscillating drop method with levitation techniques. The interfacial tension data using traditional technique based on the sessile drop method have been obtained only at melting temperature of iron due to dissolution of containers and the substrate into molten steel and oxides in higher temperature regions. The technique of our proposal to technique to obtain temperature dependence of interfacial tension between molten iron and oxides uses a core-shell form droplet including interface between two liquids using the electrostatic levitation, which can achieve the containerless conditions. The measurements are performed in International Space Station using the electrostatic levitation furnace (ELF) in KIBO.