Lateral Capillary Interaction Between Hexagonal or Triangular‐Shaped TiN Inclusions at the Gas/Steel Interface

Understanding the behavior of nonmetallic inclusion at the gas/steel interface is essential for inclusion removal from molten steel. The capillary interaction between triangular and hexagonal TiN inclusion at the gas/steel interface is quantitatively evaluated using the analytical solution and the newly developed sub‐particle model. The analytical solution, which simplifies inclusions into spheres, overestimates the capillary force by 3 and 10 times for triangular and hexagonal inclusions. The meniscus shapes around the particles and the long‐range capillary forces are dependent on the separation distance and their mutual orientation. At a constant center‐to‐center distance, the tip–flat and the side‐by‐side configurations give the strongest capillary interaction for triangular and hexagonal inclusions, respectively. In contrast, the flat–flat configuration is the preferred agglomeration pattern if the surface‐to‐surface distance is constant. The discrepancy might come from the more complex meniscus shapes around the real particles.