The molten steel in contact with air has the following chemical reaction: Steel+H
2O (in air)⇔2 [H](in steel)+[O](in steel)
K=[H]
2·[O]/PH
2O
Therefore, if the distribution of each gas in the air-slag-steel phase will be constant, the relation between PH
2O in air and the gas contents in molten steel of steelmaking practice could explained only by the above equation. But the author presumed in this paper that the [H]
2·[O] value just before tap in steelmaking process with a basic electric arc furnace was not proportional to PH
2O in air, because the hydrogen and the oxygen in molten steel in the steelmaking practice were controlled by each of the following phenomena:
(1) As the movement of the hydrogen in the air-slag-steel phase was controlled by the velocity of diffusion in slag, which changed with CaO/SiO
2 ratio of and temperature of slag, the hydrogen content ([H]) in molten steel in contact with molten slag will be effected by CaO/SiO
2 ratio of and the temperature of slag.
(2) As the molten steel and the molten slag were not in an ideal state, the ratio between the oxygen content ([O]) in molten steel and the Σ(FeO) content in molten slag would change with the component of steel, the CaO/SiO
2 ratio of slag and the bath temperature.
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