Slag-metal reactions during ladle treatment with focus on desulphurisation

Abstract

Within several cooperative projects, KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), Ovako Steel AB, and MEFOS have investigated the desulphurisation of bearing steel during vacuum degassing. The work includes thermodynamic calculations of the slag-metal equilibrium, CFD modelling of slag-metal reactions, and plant trials. Results from the various studies are presented and discussed in this paper. Models for predicting slag properties (sulphide capacity, viscosity, and oxide activities) in liquid slags as functions of slag composition and temperature have been used for the calculation of data which have been employed in static and dynamic modelling of sulphur refining. The results from static modelling show that the method allows fast and easy evaluation of the theoretical desulphurisation conditions during degassing at Ovako Steel AB, as well as theoretical determination of the parameters that have the greatest influence on the equilibrium sulphur distribution. The conclusion from dynamic modelling is that the vacuum degassing operation can be described dynamically with the present knowledge of sulphide capacity, sulphur distribution, viscosity, and oxide activities of ladle slags if this knowledge is combined with fluid flow modelling to derive the overall kinetics. The presented model approaches have been found useful in understanding the sulphur refining process at Ovako Steel AB. The dynamic modelling concept is also believed to have potential for dynamic descriptions of other slag-metal reactions in steelmaking.