Novel High-Temperature Experimental Setup to Study Dynamic Surface Tension Phenomena in Oxide Melts

Abstract

In many pyrometallurgical applications, subprocesses such as emulsification, droplet, bubble or jet formation, coalescence, and surfactant adsorption occur at small time scales (typically milliseconds to fractions of seconds), both at slag/metal and slag/gas interfaces. These phenomena are surface tension driven and—due to the high-temperature environment—very difficult to investigate in a quantitative manner. Under these dynamic conditions, the instantaneous surface tension of slags may vary in time as well as along its surface and may change dramatically the rate of the involved processes. This paper presents a new high-temperature experimental setup to study and measure the dynamic surface tension of slags, the mechanisms of slag jet and droplet formation, and the capillary breakup of molten slag jets. It features a three zone furnace with optical access, and a droplet generation device incorporating a back-pressure system in combination with a stopper for precise slag flow control. The first successfu...