Melting time of complex nickel-containing alloys in liquid steel

For development of new ferroalloys and their application, it is necessary to know their physical and chemical characteristics. The most important characteristics of the alloy, on which assimilation and distribution of the main elements of ferroalloys in the iron-carbon melt depend, are their time of melting and dissolution. Using a mathematical model for calculating the melting time, developed by the employees of the Ural Federal University and the Institute of Metallurgy of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the authors studied the duration of melting of complex nickel-containing ferroalloys in liquid steel. The program allows one to calculate the temperature of a piece of ferroalloy, thickness of the frozen steel crust, size of the alloy piece and duration of the melting periods depending on physicochemical and thermophysical characteristics of the ferroalloys. The melting mechanism of ferroalloys determines the time of their melting in liquid steel. This work contains mathematical modeling of melting of complex nickel ferroalloys containing %: ~10 Ni; 0.5 – 55.0 Cr; ~0.2 C; ~0.2 Si, in iron-carbon melt. It was found that all the alloys under consideration belong to the group of low-melting ferroalloys and process of their melting proceeds in three periods. With an increase in the initial diameter of ferroalloy piece from 3 to 100 mm, the melting time increases by 250 – 300 times. It is shown that an increase in Cr content up to 37 % in complex alloy leads to a decrease in the melting time, and with a further increase in the Cr content to 55 %, an increase in the melting time occurs. A decrease in temperature of liquid steel bath from 1700 to 1520 °С is accompanied by an increase in the duration of melting of complex ferroalloys by 7 – 8 times. In general, the considered complex nickel ferroalloys are characterized by a much faster melting process in liquid steel compared to standard ferrochrome and ferronickel.