Metallurgical Research & Technology 2018 Best Paper Award (August 2019)

In free access!

We are delighted to announce the winner of the Metallurgical Research & Technology 2018 Best Paper Award.

The Metallurgical Research & Technology Best Paper Award honors the author(s) of a paper of exceptional merit dealing with research and/or industrial aspects in metallurgy and bringing an outstanding contribution to the field. All articles published during the current year prior to the award, including Short Communications, Regular articles, Reviews and Topical contributions, can be considered for an award. The editorial committee meets every year, in December, to judge the best papers according to the criteria of originality, innovation, significance to the research community, industrial relevance, technical excellence, impact, and clarity of presentation.

The authors of the awarded articles are offered a book from the EDP Sciences catalogue. In addition, they are given the possibility to publish a press release about their work and/or their laboratory/team. Finally, the selected articles are turned into free access so that all readers can have a chance to read them.

First prize winner

Ying Zhang, Ying Ren and Lifeng Zhang for their article "Kinetic study on compositional variations of inclusions, steel and slag during refining process", published in Metall. Res. Technol. 115, 415 (2018).

About the article

A steel-slag-inclusion-alloy-refractory-air multiphase model which combined the kinetic analysis and the consideration of fluid flow in argon-stirred ladle was established to investigate the compositional changes of inclusions during refining process. The steel-slag reaction, the steel and inclusion reaction, the refractory-steel reaction, the refractory dissolution into the slag, the reoxidation of the molten steel, the removal of inclusions by floating, and the alloy dissolution were all considered in the current model. The stirring energy, the average speed of the molten steel in the plume, the horizontal speed of the molten steel in the open eye, the speed of the molten steel near the side wall, the speed of the molten steel at the bottom of the ladle and the volume fraction of the plume were obtained by mathematical simulation. The mass transfer coefficient of the molten steel is obtained by mathematical simulation. The calculation results are in accordance with the experimental ones. The current model can be widely used to predict the evolution of inclusions, steel, and steel during the refining process.

About the authors

Lifeng Zhang was born in 1972 and is the dean and a professor at the School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB). He received his Bachelor degree from Chongqing University in 1993 and Ph.D. degree from USTB in 1998. He worked at Tohoku University (Japan), Technical University of Clausthal (Germany), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway) and Missouri University of Science and Technology (USA). He has done extensive theoretical and practical studies on clean steel and nonmetallic inclusions in steel. His research results have been used in several industries and promoted the improvement of clean steels in China. He is a member of editorial boards for 8 English journals and 8 Chinese journals. He has published over 300 scientific papers and 2 books and has been invited to review manuscripts for over 90 international journals.

Ying Zhang was born in 1988 and is general manager assistant at Aladdin-Holdings Group, China, formerly Ph.D. student at School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, USTB. She received her Ph.D. degree from USTB. Her research topic is kinetic modelling of inclusion behaviors in the molten steel.

Ying Ren was born in 1989 and is the associate professor at the School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, USTB. He received his Bachelor degree and Ph.D. degree from USTB. His research interest is mainly nonmetallic inclusions in steel. He has published more than 40 first or corresponding author journal papers.