Abstract
The relationship between a flow behavior of fluid during sintering process, and the pore structure and agglomeration degree of the sinter cake with the change of pisolitic are ratio were investigated. A new experimental method employing hot stage X-ray computerized tomography has successfully made it possible to observe the cross section of sinter cake during sintering. The pore structure and the agglomeration of the sinter cake were evaluated quantitatively by the pore network analysis, cluster analysis and fluid displacement analysis developed in this work. The index of fluid displacement was defined as the area of the images which change from solid regions to pore ones or change reversely within a unit time. The growth rate of the branch width increased with the increase in the index of fluid displacement. The mean size of the cluster was strongly correlative with the branch width. Increase of pisolitic ore ratio reduced the fluid displacement, hence the development of pore and agglomeration was suppressed. The addition of the mill-scale improved the fluidity and accelerated the agglomeration of sinter cake.
