Theoretical Analysis of Oxidation Reaction Taking Place in Molten Steel during Refining Process

Abstract

Oxidation reactions taking place in molten steel in the various refining processes have correlation with each other through oxygen in a steel bath as a medium of the reactions and the transitional variations of each concentration of the reaction components in molten steel may be determined on the basis of the balances of the following two kinds of driving forces. Namely, one force has a essential tendency allowing the system to approach to the equilibrium, and another force caused by oxygensupplied into a bath acts in the opposite direction and has a tendency to keep the system away from the equilibrium.
On the basis of the function of the driving forces mentioned above, a simplified model is proposed in this paper, and the important-dimensionless factors, A and B, determining the effects of the feeding rate of available oxygen, the degree of mixing of molten steel and the temperature of molten steel on the transitional variations of process variables are involved in the model.
By the use of this model, the experimental data of oxidation reactions obtained by the other investigators were quantitatively analysed, and the differences in the proceeding sequence of the oxidation of silicon and the decarburization which were widely known from the comparison between the experimental data obtained in LD converter and those in the crucible were clarified quantitatively in this work.