Effect of w(MgO)/w(Al_(2)O_(3)) ratio and basicity on microstructure and metallurgical properties of blast furnace slag

The CaO–SiO_(2)–Al_(2)O_(3)–MgO system is the main component unit in the slag formation process in blast furnace smelting.Its structural changes directly affect the high-temperature metallurgical properties of slag.Molecular dynamics simulations were thus conducted to analyze the microstructure changes of the quaternary slag system under different basicities and w(MgO)/w(Al_(2)O_(3))ratios.The changes in w(MgO)/w(Al_(2)O_(3))ratio and basicity could affect the stability of each ion-oxygen.Increasing the basicity and w(MgO)/w(Al_(2)O_(3))ratio,the average coordination number of O surrounding Si atom only changed a little and remained approximately 4,indicating that Si exists as a stable structure of the[SiO4]4−tetrahedron in the slag structure,while the average coordination number of O surrounding Al atom changed greatly from 4 to 6,which indicated that the Al existence form could be transformed from[AlO_(4)]^(5−) tetrahedron to[AlO_(5)]^(7−) pentahedron and[AlO_(6)]^(9−) octahedron.Also,the diffusion rate of ions was accelerated with the increase in w(MgO)/w(Al_(2)O_(3))ratio and basicity.Moreover,the self-diffusion coefficients of each ion were obtained,and the magnitudes were observed to be in the following order:Mg^(2+)>Ca^(2+)>Al^(3+)>Si^(4+).The calculation and analysis of the slag viscosity and activation energy of viscous flow under different basicities and w(MgO)/w(Al_(2)O_(3))ratios revealed that the metallurgical properties of slag at high temperature depend on the flow-unit diffusivity and the microstructure stability,simultaneously,the basicity should be controlled between 1.0 and 1.2,and the w(MgO)/w(Al_(2)O_(3))ratio could be controlled between 0.45 and 0.55.