Evolution of Inclusions in Magnesium–Calcium-Treated Liquid Iron

Abstract

With the development of clean steel technology, the control of non-metallic inclusions in steel is of increasing importance. Magnesium–calcium treatment can effectively balance the castability of molten steel and the control on inclusion size, which is an inclusion modification approach with application prospect. In view of this, how three addition methods (i.e., adding Mg before Ca, adding Mg after Ca, and adding Mg together with Ca) influenced the modification effect of inclusions in liquid iron was experimentally studied, and how these inclusions evolved with time was discussed in this paper. The results demonstrated that despite the sharp difference in their inclusion evolution, composite inclusions with a magnesium aluminate spinel (MAS) core and an outer CaO–Al2O3–MgO layer were formed by all the three addition methods, with the average inclusion size of 1–2 μm. Furthermore, thermodynamic calculation was adopted to reveal the transformation relationship between MAS and calcium aluminate in each of the three addition methods, and clarify the formation and disappearance mechanisms of the intermediate product CaS in the process of Mg–Ca treatment. The thermodynamic calculation results agreed well with the experiment data.