An analysis of the structure of iron ore sinter cake.

Abstract

Physical properties of sinter cake such as strength and permeability are strongly related to its structure. In this investigation, the 3-dimensional structure of voids in sinter cakes prepared from raw mix with a range of coke contents was quantified using image analysis. The physical properties were then compared with the measured structural parameters.The results obtained are of a preliminary nature and the interpretations are not conclusive. However, a possible way to evaluate sinter strength was identified which utilizes the measured values of void fraction and specific surface area of the sinter cake. The work also showed that when a sinter cake is considered to be a packed bed, the ''apparent'' diameters of the particles used for estimating gas flow resistance across the bed and heat exchange rates between gas and solid are different for the respective transport phenomena.A theoretical analysis of the magnitudes of forces acting on granules was made to identify the causes of the rearrangement of a bed during sintering.