Study of dynamic refractory wear by slags containing very high FeO contents under steelmaking conditions

The wear of industrial refractory materials was studied in contact with slag containing high amounts of FeO using the rotating finger technique. The thermodynamic equilibrium of the refractory slag systems was also determined in Thermo-calc® and FactSage™. The studied refractories were alumina spinel, zirconia, graphite, silicon carbide (SiC), magnesia-carbon (MgO-C), chromite (Cr2O3), and MgO-Spinel (MgO–Al2O3). The fingers were rotated in a FeOx (90wt%) – SiO2 (5wt%) – CaO (5wt%) slag for 3 hours in a molybdenum crucible at 100 RPM at 1700K. The wear of the refractory fingers was determined by dimensional changes and changes in composition of the slags. Only MgO-spinel refractories exhibited resistance to the slag. The thermodynamic equilibrium calculations were able to predict the experimental behavior when appropriate databases were used, with the exception of the chromite slag.