Influence of iron ore properties on the flow of melt formed in the sintering process

Abstract

Melt formation and its flow are essential phenomena to proceed agglomeration in the sintering process of iron ores. A new experimental technique have been proposed which enables us to detect the macroscopic flow of melt initially formed by the reaction between iron ore and limestone. Using this technique, influence of iron ore property on the melt formation and assimilation process were examined in terms of melt-down temperature, chemical composition of dropped melt and shape change of a tablet sample. As a result, a difference was obtained in the melt-down behaviors between hematite and pisolitic ores. However, the hematite and pisolitic ores both having a similar gangue mineral composition show similar melt-down temperatures. A pisolitic ore having relatively high Al2O3 content has little dependency of particle size and shows higher melt-down temperature. The effect of increase in Al2O3 content is considerably large, and it leads to decrease in fluidity of formed melt and increase in melt-down temperature.