Sintering of dry vibratable refractory materials for EAF bottom

TOMBA MARTINEZ, ANALÍA G.; CAMERUCCI, MARÍA A.; CAVALIERI, ANA L.; MARTORELLO, LEANDRO F.; GALLIANO, PABLO G.

Orlando, Florida, USA

Congreso; 9th Biennial Worldwide Congress on Refractories (UNITECR'05); 2005

The American Ceramic Society

Steelmaking electric arc furnaces (EAF) bottomsare usualy built up with dry vibratable refractory mixes. During furnace operation the refractory mix undergoes sinterization, slag attack, and chemical interaction with steel. Material sintering is needed in the upper part of the EAF bottom, in order to develop enough mechanical strength and wear resistance during operation. Densification of the upper layer also reduces steel infiltration from the hot surface. In this work, the analysis of three different dry vibratable commercial refractory materials for EAF bottom is reported. The analysis includes chemical, mineralogical and granulometric characterisation, thermal analysis, microstructural evaluation, and mechanical strength determination of sintered samples. Results showed that these materials mainly consist on mixes of periclase and dolomite with a wide granulometric distribution and different minor components. Sintering begins at temperatures higher than 1200°C and is based on liquid phase formationwhich is favored by FeO/Fe2O3 content. A similar phenomenon was also observed in post mortem samples. Well-sintered samples with higher mechanical strengths and lower porosities were obtained from the Fe-rich material.