Experimental Evaluation of Chemical Composition and Viscosity of Melts During Iron Ore Sintering

The viscosity of the melts formed in the sintering reaction was measured for evaluating the fluidity of the melts, which play a crucial role in the sintering process. Using the sphere draw-up method carried out the measurements of high temperature viscosity. With low-melting point compositions of the Fe2O3-CaO-SiO2 system, the viscosity of high SiO2 content melts (Fe2O3/CaO/SiO2=38.5/34.5/27.0 weight basis) was 5 times higher than that of low SiO2 content melts (Fe2O3/CaO=80/20). The viscosity of low SiO2 content increased with addition of Al2O3 and SiO2. Similarly, with melt compositions generated from actual ores, viscosity depended on the contents of Al2O3 and SiO2.Based on the results, the viscosity of the melted liquid was estimated from the chemical composition, and the viscosity of the solid-liquid coexistence phase was also evaluated using a viscosity calculatinge quation for suspensions. The viscosity distribution of the solid-liquid coexistence phase at 1300°C in the ternary composition system Fe2O3-CaO-SiO2 was obtained.