Dissolution of Scrap in Hot Metal under Linz-Donawitz (LD) Steelmaking Conditions

One of the main charging materials of the Linz-Donawitz oxygen steelmaking process (LD) is scrap. Scrap acts as a coolant for the exothermic reactions inside the LD vessel and as an iron source in addition to hot metal. The optimization of the LD process is focused, amongst other factors, on thermodynamic and kinetic modelling. The results of simulations have to be validated in close to reality laboratory-scale experiments. A study was made on the dissolution behavior of common steel scrap in carbon-saturated hot metal which is charged into LD converters. In order to examine the effect of several parameters on diffusive scrap melting, the difference between stagnant and dynamic dissolution as well as the influence of the hot metal temperature were investigated. Using a literature-based equation the mass transfer coefficient of carbon between the solid scrap and the liquid hot metal was evaluated. The ranges of values of the ablation rate and the mass transfer coefficient for the appropriate systems are pointed out, resulting in a significant dependence of the investigated parameters.