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By Xiaodong Wang

A liquid metal flow generated by a magnetic field whose traveling direction is periodically reversed, the Reversed Traveling Magnetic Field (R-TMF) is studied. The modulation frequency ranges from 0 to 6 Hz. Ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry probes the generated fluid flow. Depending on the modulation frequency, a number of characteristic flow features are exhibited. A transition frequency (approximately 4 Hz) exists, above which the flow is no longer sensitive to the force modulation. Below this transition point, the amplitude of the velocity oscillation increases, and then below fm = 0.05 Hz, it saturates around a value close to that observed without any modulation. A theoretical model to obtain an analytical solution of electromagnetic force and to predict flow motion is developed, which is fairly in agreement with the experiments.

Jan 1, 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the immobilization as a host for metallic pollutants (Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn) by ettringite phase. Ettringite phase is produced through hydration reaction of calcium aluminate with gypsum. From the XRD patterns, it is known that the distance between spaces in 010 planes in ettringite crystal increase with an increase of ionic radius of heavy metal except Pb; no big difference is shown. For this reason, the d-value of 010 planes in ettringite crystal increased with the substitution of Cr, Cu and Zn having a big Al ironic radius. But in case of Pb, because the substitution occurred at calcium site, it does not influence to increase d-value of 010 planes.

Jan 1, 2006

By Yushiro Hirai

Saganoseki smelter & refinery had operated two flash smelting furnaces from 1973, attaining 330,000 mtpy of copper production in 1989. In 1996, however, it carried out a "integration of two flash furnaces". That is, it doubled the feeding capacity to one flash furnace to shut down another furnace while maintaining the same production. Single flash furnace operation has successfully started in March 1996 accomplishing a great reduction of the total production cost. The production had reached to 350,000 mtpy in 1997, and further increased to 450,000 mtpy by executing the expansion program with single flash furnace in 1998. This paper introduces results of the single flash furnace operation and describes about an outline of the expansion.

Jan 1, 1999

By Ji-He Wei

Keywords: stainless steel, AOD refining, side and top combined blowing, mixing characteristics, water modeling The fluid mixing characteristics in the bath during the side and top combined blowing AOD (argon-oxygen decarburization) refining process of stainless steel have preliminarily been studied on a water model unit of a 120 t AOD converter. The geometric similarity ratio between the model and its prototype (including the side tuyeres and the top lances) was 1:4. On the basis of the theoretical calculations for the parameters of the gas streams in the side tuyeres and the top lances, the gas blowing rates used for the model have more reasonably been determined. The influence of the tuyere number and position arrangement, and the gas flow rates for side and top blowing on the characteristics has been examined. The results demonstrated that the liquid in the bath underwent vigorous circulatory motion during gas blowing, without obvious dead zone in the bath, resulting in a well mixing effectiveness. The gas flow rate of the main tuyere had a governing role on the characteristics, a suitable increase in the gas flow rate of the subtuyere could improve mixing efficiency, and the gas jet from top lance could make the mixing time prolong. Corresponding to the oxygen top blowing rate specified by the technology, a roughly equivalent and good mixing effectiveness could be reached by using six side tuyeres with an angle of 27° between each tuyere, and five side tuyeres with an angular separation of 22.5° or 27° between each tuyere. The relationships of the mixing time with the gas blowing rates of main-tuyeres and sub-tuyeres and top lance, the angle between each tuyere, and the tuyere number have been obtained.

Jan 1, 2005

By R. W. Smith

Living and killed organisms, particularly microorganisms, and extracellular products derived from the organisms are increasingly finding use in minerals engineering. Goals include both enhancement of mineral processing/11.ydrometallurgica,l operations and remediation of mineral industry wastes. Some of the applications, such as biologically assisted leaching of ?sulfide ores and bioxidation of refractory gold ores, are well established commercial ?processes used around the world. Others, such as the use. of organisms for the removal of heavy metal ions from dilute aqueous streams, are nearing commercial application. Many other uses of microorganisms and. their derivatives are potentially possible. These include use of microorganisms in flocculation or flotation of minerals., remediation of organics potentially discharged from mineral engineering operations, degradation of cyanide, the recovery of bitumen from heavy oil reservoirs and tar sands and the solubilisation of lignites and low rank coals. In order to fully exploit these many possible uses of organisms and their derivatives, extensive fundamental .and .applied research work exploring the fundamentals, potential and practicality of the various possible uses of microorganisms in mineral engineering should be vigorously pursued. ?

Jan 1, 1991

By Art Cooper

Granulation systems are customarily viewed as problem areas in metallurgical operations. The inherent risk of explosion when combining a high temperature melt with water creates a safety hazard. Separation of the granulated material from the quenching medium generally involves equipment that can have significant maintenance and operating costs. Granulation systems' reliability and availability can negatively affect the plant production. Against this background, granulation systems have been treated by design firms and producers as an add-on and a necessary evil. The technology is becoming better understood and solutions to common problems are being found. This paper will discuss typical problems in common systems, and some of the improvements that have been made, with particular reference to non-ferrous applications.

Jan 1, 2006

By Carlos Frias

The lead-acid battery recycling is a major industrial activity (more than four million tonnes recycled lead per year) that generates large amounts of toxic wastes such as lead slag, mattes and acidic sludge, besides airborne emissions. This is a waste-producer industry that needs a definitive solution to avoid its negative environmental impact and getting a sustainable lead production. That is the principal target of the CLEANLEAD technology, which properly combines both hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical routes aiming to get zero-waste production, reducing the use of energy and resources in all phases of battery reprocessing, and consequently, greatly decreasing the operating cost. There will be no toxic emissions to land, water or air, and obtained products are pure lead metal or pure lead oxide, and commercial gypsum instead of waste sludge.

Jan 1, 2006

By Pengfu Tan

Xstrata Copper at Mount Isa in Australia has operated one copper Isasmelt furnace and four P-S converters. The phenomena of foaming occur in above 10% of converter operations. A thermodynamic model of copper P-S converter and a viscosity model of converter slag have been developed to simulate the slag blow and copper blow. The model predicts the chemistry and viscosity of copper skims during copper blow. The effects of oxygen potential, charge of dirty materials, slag carry-over, under-blowing, over-blowing, and temperature on the foaming and viscosity of copper skims have been discussed. Some improvements of the industrial operations have been presented.

Jan 1, 2006

By Qing Bo

In this study, the cobalt oxide precursor was prepared in open-style reactor in the condition of high reactant concentration, and then the precursor was decomposed to obtain the cobalt oxides (Co3O4). The effects of some factors on the cobalt precipitation, the particle size and size distribution, and the micro-morphology were addressed. The factors studied include cobalt concentration, initial pH of solution, temperature and time for the reaction, the charge amount of urea, and the temperature for decomposition. It is determined that the precursor particle is in the chemical composition of Co2(OH)3Cl with fine crystalline. By calcinations under proper conditions, the mono-dispersed cobalt oxide particles were prepared with fine crystalline, about 2 µ m in particle size and regular shape in morphology.

Jan 1, 2006

By Cynthia Belt

"Before energy can be saved in the materials industry, the process must be understood. At the same time, baby boomers are starting to retire. New people are entering the field without experience and training especially in methods to save energy. Various classroom courses, seminars, books, software, and websites are available for the professional to better understand the industry with the ultimate goal to reduce energy use. This paper is a review of what is currently available with some comments on potential needs.IntroductionEnergy use is high within the materials industry. For the United States, the primary metal industry uses 8% of all energy used in manufacturing (Figure 1 )1 or 1, 736 trillion BTUs per year. Sadly, while energy use is high, energy management is not universal within the industry. Counting both internal programs and external such as the utility supplier, equipment manufacturers, federal and state programs, only 66% of primary metals companies participate in an energy management activity1.For the materials field, process heating is the majority of the energy use in a plant2. Understanding and optimizing process heating is a critical need for materials energy professionals. Surprisingly, process heating is not necessarily the work addressed within an energy program. The U.S. 2006 Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (see Table 1) found more primary metal companies addressing lighting with 31 % participation versus 15% with process heating work even though energy used in lighting tends to be a minor (in the range ofl-3% ofa typical plant's energy use)."

Jan 1, 2013

By Xi Zhang

A technique for fabricating free-standing, high-aspect-ratio porous and pillar-type Ni structures has been developed using wet Si processing. A wafer of (100) Si was initially etched in HF solution to form deep pores with micron-sized diameter. The aspect ratio can exceed 200. By introducing the as-etched Si into a defined aqueous Ni2+ solution, Ni deposits grew rapidly onto the sidewalls and replaced the Si. Long-time immersion allows the Si sidewalls to be completely converted and thus form a metallic Ni structure with high-aspect-ratio pores. It is known that close-packed submicron Si pillars can be formed by oxidizing and subsequent etching of the macropore sidewalls. Treated in the same Ni solution, high-aspect-ratio Ni pillars were correspondingly emerged by replicating the original pillar-type Si structure.

Jan 1, 2006

Gas-liquid contacting in the packed bed is a common operation in metallurgical reactors. Research has shown that, unlike wetting flow, non-wetting liquid flows in the form of discrete droplets or rivulets. Thus, modeling of the liquid phase as a continuum is in contradiction to the observations. Also, for the non-wetting case, continuum models have failed to describe liquid flow path when the liquid source is a point source. The aim of the current work is to put forward a combined Lagrangian-Eulerian approach to model the liquid and gas flow in the packed bed. Liquid is assumed discrete and modeled using a force balance approach. Gas is assumed to be interpenetrating continua and modeled using k-emodel for turbulent flow. Structured packing is assumed and x- ray imaging technique is used to visualize liquid flow lines in the bed. Simulation results for liquid flow path compared with the experiments.

Jan 1, 2006

By Zhang Chuanfu

Keywords: modified coprecipitation method, Ni-Co alloy powders, solid-solution oxalate, growth mechanism Homogeneous solid-solution oxalates of Ni2+ and Co2+ ions were synthesized by modified coprecipitation method and the composition and morphology of the fibrous solid-solution oxalates precursor were characterized by XRD, IR, DTA/TG and SEM analysis. The effects of feeding methods, pH values, precipitation temperature, reactant concentration, addition surfactant, alcohol washing and drying process on the morphology and dispersion of the precursor were investigated in detail. The experimental results showed that the coprecipitated powders have characteristics that are different from those of the mechanical mixtures with the same stoichiometry. Based on the observations of precursors growth and SEM morphology of the precursor, the oriented attachment was proposed for the well-aligned growth of the fibrous Ni-Co alloy precursor particles.

Jan 1, 2005

By Sadegh Firoozi

Experiments measuring the kinetics of oxidation and making visual observations of the oxidation of approximately 6 g static lead baths containing arsenic, antimony and tin were conducted in the temperature range from 500 to 600 oC. A range of repeatable behaviours were observed, notably: the formation of a coherent, solid oxide layers on pure lead and lead-tin alloys; the formation of liquid oxide droplets during the initial oxidation of lead-arsenic and lead-antimony alloys and the eventual formation of a complete oxide layer covering the entire free surface of these alloys. Thermogravimetric measurements revealed that the rate of oxygen uptake was strongly influenced by the form of oxides being generated at the melt/gas interface. Compared to the rates of oxidation of pure lead, arsenic increased the rate of oxygen uptake throughout the temperature range via the formation of liquid oxidation products. The presence of antimony resulted in a moderate increase in the rate of oxygen uptake as compared to arsenic. Tin was effective in lowering the rate of oxidation even in the presence of arsenic because the oxidation product was always a coherent layer that acted as a physical barrier to oxygen transport to the underlying alloy.

Jan 1, 2006

By Jacques J. Eksteen

Metallurgical accounting around toll treatment smelters pose a number of challenges. This paper reviews the requirements for good sampling practice, and how conflicting requirements for good furnace operation and design often makes reliable closure of the metallurgical balance tenuous at best. Typical physical causes of variance and bias will be identified. The propagation of error (in the form of variance) will be discussed for a copper smelter.

Jan 1, 2006

By Hector Carreon

Due to elevated temperatures, excessive stresses and severed corrosion conditions, turbine engine components are subject to creep processes that limit the components life such as a turbine bucket. The failure mechanism of a turbine bucket is related primarily to creep and corrosion and secondarily to thermal fatigue. As a result, it is desirable to assess the current condition of such turbine component. By using eddy current images, it was shown that the eddy current technique could be used to monitor creep damage in a nickel base super-alloy. The eddy current results also show a significative variation in the electrical conductivity on the creep damage zone with respect to the background zone in nickel-base super-alloy samples. In addition, the absolute thermoelectric power coefficient show also a strong dependence associated with creep damage in nickel base super-alloy samples using a copper hot tip reference. The eddy current and thermoelectric power techniques seems to show promise as nondestructive evaluation tools for monitoring the level of creep damage in metallic alloys.

Jan 1, 2010

By Lifeng Zhang

The transport of fluid, heat ,and particles (bubbles and solid inclusions) in flowing molten steel is investigated in steel refining ladles, the continuous casting tundish, continuous casting mold and strand, and steel ingot casting processes. The two-equation k-?? model is used to simulate the turbulence. Multiphase fluid flow is numerically simulated with a Lagrangian-Eulerian approach, an Eularian-Eulerian approach and the Volume Of Fluid (VOF) method. The simulation can predict inclusion trajectories, inclusion removal fraction, free surface waves and other phenomena, which can be used to optimize these important metallurgical operations.

Jan 1, 2006

By Geysen. Daneel

Better slag valorization is part of improving the sustainability of steel, stainless steel and non- ferrous metal production processes. Besides, it can improve the sustainability of other products and production processes as well. A sound and well established slag valorization is beneficial for the overall economics, marketing and appreciation of the metallurgical process and its products. On 6-7 April 2009, the First International Slag Valorisation Symposium was held in Leuven, Belgium. This paper gives a brief summary of the symposium, providing an overview of slag valorization opportunities. The authors believe that high temperature process slags can have interesting applications and that within the next 10 to 20 years slags will need such valorization options in order to compete with other materials and get general support for further production. On the other hand, the authors also expect a higher demand for slags for the production of various materials. High temperature processes should anticipate on the growing opportunities for valorization of slags and increase the resilience of their process by better understanding slag processing, slag quality and material requirements. More interdisciplinary research efforts are required to reach this level of knowledge for the different high temperature processes. Such an interdisciplinary research platform was recently established at KULeuven, Belgium, named SMART-PRO2 (Sustainable Materialization of Residues from Thermal Processes into Products).

Jan 1, 2010

By Jian Li

Developing the Generation IV nuclear reactor is an international collaborative effort. One of the most promising Gen IV nuclear reactor designs is the supercritical water (SCW) concept, in which the water coolant runs at about 625 oC at the outlet. Under this temperature and high pressure condition, the cooling water is at supercritical state, which poses significant demand for both in-core and out of core materials. High-temperature mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and radiation damage are some of the key challenges. At present, no single commercial material can meet all the requirements of the severe SCWR conditions. Corrosion experiments per-formed under SCW condition yield various kind of corrosion modes, some are very challenging to characterize using conventional techniques. A combination of various advanced characterization techniques proofed to be essential to understand the root cause of materials? degradation.

Jan 1, 2010

By Qingwei Wang

This study focused on acidic wastewater from producing sulfuric acid system in zinc smelter containing mercury 21.48mg/L, zinc 55.85mg/L, lead 38.50mg/L, copper 1.68mg/L, cadmium 10.25mg/L, As 29.86mg/L treated by biologics. The factors of pH value, the ratio of biologics to mercury, complexing time, hydrolytic time and temperature were studied in this paper. Experimental results indicated that at pH value 10, quantity of biologics to mercury ratio was 16, complexing time 30min, hydrolyzation time 20min, temperature at 40?, concentration of mercury in treated water was removed to 22.15µg/L. At same time heavy metals such as Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd, As was removed by biologics, the remained concentration in treated water was Zn 0.53mg/L, Pb 0.12mg/L, Cu 0.01mg/L, Cd low to 0.01mg/L and As 0.023mg/L. According to EDAX analysis, mercury content in complexing sediment reached 28.49% easily to recycle as raw material and low concentration of heavy metals in hydrolytic sediment easily to dispose and treat.

Jan 1, 2009