Development of estimation method through thermal conductivity and local structure of aluminoborosic acid melt

Abstract

The development of new and improved means of steel production would be beneficial for industries across the globe. Professor Kazuki Morita, Department of Materials Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan, is developing a means of measuring thermal conductivity in order to clarify the properties of materials during production processes. A key focus for Morita is on the development of a prediction method for any physical or physicochemical properties of various materials. In a current project, he and the team are studying the mechanism of expression of thermal conductivity and thermodynamic properties of acid-based oxides. In order to control the heat flow process and devise improvements it's necessary to optimise the thermal conductivity of the flux system. In doing so, the team is seeking to reveal more data and better understand the thermal conductivity of the mold flux. In their work, the researchers are using high temperature furnaces in order to ensure that the materials remain extremely hot, as well as gas flowing systems to control the atmosphere and hot wire cells to measure thermal conductivity. To date, Morita and the team have successfully explained the qualitative behaviour of thermal conductivity with composition change but believe there remains more to be done to quantitatively assess the results. If they can predict the behaviour of slags and metals during cooling the researchers believe they will be able to improve the performance of the continuous casting of steel and avoid accidents such as breakout.