Coarsening Behavior of Particles in Fe-O-Al-Ca Melts

The characteristics of particles greatly affect the microstructure and performance of metallic materials, especially their sizes. To provide insight into coarsening phenomena of particles in metallic melts, Fe-O-Al-Ca melt with calcium aluminate particles was selected as a model system. This study uses HT-CSLM, SEM detections and stereological analysis to probe the behavior of particles and their characteristics including size, number density, volume fraction, spreading of particle size, inter-surface distance and distribution of particles. Based on the experimental evidence and calculation of collision, we demonstrate that the coarsening of inclusion particles is not only dependent on the Ostwald growth as studied in previous study, but also on the particle coagulation, and floatation. The collision of particles affects the maximum size of the particles during whole deoxidation process and dominates the coarsening of particles at later stage of deoxidation under the condition without external stirring in Fe-O-Al-Ca melts. The factors influencing collision behaviors and floating properties were also analyzed, which is corresponding to coarsening behavior and change of particle characteristic in the melts with different amounts of Ca addition. Such coarsening mechanism may also be useful in predicting the size of particles in other metallic materials.