Experimental Study of Softening and Melting Properties on Indonesia Vanadium-Titanium Sinters

Abstract

As a raw material, Indonesia vanadium-titanium sinters are being applied to the blast furnace process for iron making in the typical iron and steel plant. In order to keep the health running of blast furnace process, in this work we have investigated the softening and melting properties of Indonesia vanadium-titanium sinters. We found that the content of vanadium-titanium magnetite in sinter is correlated with the softening and melting ranges for those sinters considered here. With the increasing of the vanadium-titanium magnetite in sinter, the starting softening temperature increases gradually and the final softening temperature increases as well, thereby the softening range becomes narrow. Both starting and final melting temperatures begin to ascent, and the variation of melting range is not obvious. In addition, we also found that the coke is wetted by the molten slag and iron. From the viewpoint of blast furnace process, the softening and melting zone has to move downward. In this zone of blast furnace the contact area of solid-liquid phase will get larger because of the close contract among the molten slag, iron and coke. On one hand, this kind of behavior can definitely speed up the reduction of iron oxide. On the other hand, it simultaneously worse the ventilation properties and affect the normal running of air flow, because a lot of iron and slag can not be got smoothly into the hearth through coke layer.