Regular Article

Modeling transient evolution of inclusion in Si-Mn-killed steels during the ladle mixing process

School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, No. 30, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

^⁎ e-mail: zhanglifeng@ustb.edu.cn

Received: 7 January 2017
Received in final form: 23 April 2017
Accepted: 5 May 2017

Abstract

A reaction model was developed to investigate the transient evolution of inclusions during the ladle mixing process. The evolutions of Mn and Si in Si-Mn-killed steels from previous works were accurately predicted using the current reaction model. During the mixing process of the added SiMn ferroalloy, it can be simulated that Si and Mn concentrations first fluctuated and then gradually trended to be stable in various reaction zones. The fluctuation of steel chemistry led to the transient variation of the inclusion composition during the mixing process. The reaction model was widely used to predict the transient evolution of inclusions during the ladle mixing process of Si-Mn-killed steels with varying sequences of ferroalloy addition and different concentrations of Si, Mn, and Al.