Solubility of hydrogen in slags and its impact on ladle refining

The aim of the present work was to clarify the mechanisms of hydrogen removal during vacuum degassing. The main reason for this was because the primary source of hydrogen pick-up in steel-making is the moisture in the furnace atmosphere and the raw material charged into the ladle furnace. Previous studies showed that the presence of hydroxyl ions in the ladle slag results in hydrogen transfer from the slag back into the steel bath. The main focus of this thesis was therefore to gain deeper knowledge of the ladle slag and its properties. For this purpose a number of slag compositions were examined in order to clarify whether these slags were single liquids at 1858 K. 14 out of 27 compositions in the Al2O3 CaO MgO SiO2 system was completely melted. These results were in disagreement with the existing phase diagrams. Water solubility measurements were carried out by employing a thermo gravimetric technique. The temperature was found to have negligible effect on the water solubilities. The experimental results showed that the water capacity values varied between 1x103 and 2x103 in the majority of the composition range. However, for compositions close to CaO saturation the water capacity value could reach higher than 3x103. The experimental determined water capacity was further used to develop a water capacity model for the quaternary slag system Al2O3 CaO MgO SiO2. The model was constructed by considering the affects of the binary interactions between the cations in the slag on the capacity of capturing hydroxyl ions. The model calculations agreed well with the experimental results as well as with the literature data. An attempt was made to develop a preliminary process model for dehydrogenation by using the results from CFD calculation. For this purpose industrial sampling was made during vacuum treatment. The hydrogen concentrations decreases fast in the initial stages of the degassing, but is slowed down in the final stage. The model calculations fit the initial stage of the dehydrogenation process well. In the final stage of the process the predicted values are somewhat lower than the plant data. The results from the model prediction showed that a dynamic process model could be satisfactorily constructed using the results from CFD calculation. The present work aimed at determining how big impact hydroxyl ions in the slag have on the final hydrogen concentration in the liquid steel. It was found that the effect is of less importance regarding the final concentration of the metal after the degassing treatment.QC 20101110