Solute Redistribution in Directional Melting Process

The solute redistribution in directional melting process is theoretically studied. Based on quantitative evaluations, uniform.solute distribution in liquid and a quasi-steady solute distribution in solid are supposed. The discussion on the solute balance comes to a simple model for the solute redistribution in directional melting process. As an example, the variation of liquid composition during melting process of carbon steel is quantitatively evaluated using the model. Results show that the melting of an alloy starts at solidus temperature, but approaches the liquidus temperature after a very short transient process.

Mathematical simulation of direct reduction process in zinc-bearing pellets

A one-dimensional unsteady mathematical model was established to describe direct reduction in a composite pellet made of metallurgical dust. The model considered heat transfer, mass transfer, and chemical reactions including iron oxide reductions, zinc oxide reduction and carbon gasification, and it was numerically solved by the tridiagonal matrix algorithm （TDMA）. In order to verify the model, an experiment was performed, in which the profiles of temperature and zinc removal rate were measured during the reduction process. Results calculated by the mathematical model were in fairly good agreement with experimental data. Finally, the effects of furnace temperature, pellet size, and carbon content were investigated by model calculations. It is found that the pellet temperature curve can be divided into four parts according to heating rate. Also, the zinc removal rate increases with the increase of furnace temperature and the decrease of pellet size, and carbon content in the pellet has little influence on the zinc removal rate.

DANIELI concepts and experiences in thin slab casting and rolling technology for HRC production—the evolution of a winning process route to face increasing market requirements

The direct rolling process for hot strip production,where the thin slab caster is connected directly to the mill,has gained market share rapidly because of its remarkable advantages in terms of energy savings and investment cost over the conventional hot strip mills. However,the unquestionable advantages of the first-generation applications of this plant concept also entail significant limitations both in productivity and steel grades that can be produced. Since his first pioneering applications,Danieli considered strategic the development of new technical solutions specifically conceived to overcome these limitations with the goal of increasing plant production volumes and enlarging steel grade product mix,in order to cover the gap between "Conventional mill" and "Thin slab casting and rolling" process routes. In order to reach this goal,Danieli has developed a complete portfolio of plant lay outs adopting Thin Slab Casting and Rolling technologies,each of them conceived to guarantee the optimal CAPEX and OPEX parameters in fitting with market requirements our Customer intend to target.in terms of productivity,steel grades and coil dimension product mix. Danieli TSR(Thin Slab Rolling) fTSR(flexible Thins Slab Rolling) QSP(Quality Strip Production) and ETR(Extra Thin Rolling) plant configurations are analyzed in this paper. With this diversified approach,Danieli solutions are most appropriate answers to thin slab casting and rolling to produce hot rolled coils with superior quality and an extremely diversified range of steel grades. Already,this approach has allowed Danieli plants to:①exceed the threshold production of 3.0 Mt/a with 2 casting strands in operation as done in Tangshan Iron and Steel plant in P.R.China since 2005;②expand the product mix to include virtually all the steel grades used for flat product applications,including the most demanding ones,such as peritectic(in Essar Algoma Canada and Benxi Iron and Steel,China),micro-alloyed,and silicon steels,for the most sophisticated applications,such as automotive and pipe manufacturing,including Arctic applications,(as done in OMK plant in Russia);③extend the range of final strip thicknesses to include ultra thin gauges,down to 0.8 mm(as in Ezz Flat Steel,in Egypt).

Direct Observation of Carrier Transportation Process in InGaAs/GaAs Multiple Quantum Wells Used for Solar Cells and Photodetectors

The resonant excitation is used to generate photo-excited carriers in quantum wells to observe the process of the carriers transportation by comparing the photoluminescence results between quantum wells with and without a p-n junction. It is observed directly in experiment that most of the photo-excited carriers in quantum wells with a p-n junction escape from quantum wells and form photoeurrent rather than relax to the ground state of the quantum wells. The photo absorption coei^cient of multiple quantum wells is also enhanced by a p-n junction. The results pave a novel way for solar cells and photodetectors making use of low-dimensional structure.

Effects of Tensor Couplings on Nucleonic Direct URCA Processes in Neutron Star Matter

The relativistic neutrino emissivity of the nucleonic direct URCA processes in neutron star matter is investigated within the relativistic Hartree-Fock approximation. We particularly study the influences of the tensor couplings of vector mesons ω and ρ on the nucleonic direct URCA processes. It is found that the inclusion of the tensor couplings of vector mesons w and p can slightly increase the maximum mass of neutron stars. In addition, the results indicate that the tensor couplings of vector mesons ω and ρ lead to obvious enhancement of the total neutrino emissivity for the nucleonic direct URCA processes, which must accelerate the cooling rate of the non- superfluid neutron star matter. However, when considering only the tensor coupling of vector meson ρ, the neutrino emissivity for the nucleonic direct URCA processes slightly declines at low densities and significantly increases at high densities. That is, the tensor coupling of vector meson ρ leads to the slow cooling rate of a low-mass neutron star and rapid cooling rate of a massive neutron star.

Direct transformation of fossil carbon into chemicals: A review

Despite the long tradition of fossil carbon(coal,char,and related carbon-based materials)for fueling mankind,the science of transforming them into chemicals is still demandingly progressing in the current energy scenario,especially when considering its responsibilities to the global climate change.Traditionally,there are four routes of preparing chemicals directly from fossil carbon,including hydrogasification,gasification,direct liquefaction,and oxidation,in the macroscope of gas-solid reaction(hydrogasification and gasification)and liquid-solid reaction(direct liquefaction and oxidation).When the study goes to microscale,the gas-solid reaction can be considered as the reaction between the severe condensed radicals and gas,while the liquid-solid reaction is the direct reaction between the radical and the activated-molecule.To have a full overview of the area,this review systematically summarizes the main factors in these processes and shows our own perspectives as follows,(ⅰ)stabilizing the free radicals generated from coal and then directly converting them has the highest efficiency in coal utilization;(ⅱ)the research on the self-catalytic process of coal structure will have a profound impact on the direct preparation of chemicals from fossil carbon.Further discussions are also proposed to guide the future study of the area into a more sustainable direction.

Numerical simulation of the direct reduction of pellets in a rotary hearth furnace for zinc-containing metallurgical dust treatment

A mathematical model was established to describe the direct reduction of pellets in a rotary hearth furnace （RHF）. In the model, heat transfer, mass transfer, and gas-solid chemical reactions were taken into account. The behaviors of iron metallization and dezincification were analyzed by the numerical method, which was validated by experimental data of the direct reduction of pellets in a Si-Mo furnace. The simulation results show that if the production targets of iron metallization and dezincification are up to 80% and 90%, respectively, the furnace temperature for high-temperature sections must be set higher than 1300~ C. Moreover, an undersupply of secondary air by 20% will lead to a decline in iron metallization rate of discharged pellets by 10% and a decrease in dezincing rate by 13%. In addition, if the residence time of pellets in the furnace is over 20 min, its further extension will hardly lead to an obvious increase in production indexes under the same furnace temperature curve.

Basic properties of steel plant dust and technological properties of direct reduction

Basic physicochemical properties of the dust from Laiwu Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. were studied. It is found that C, Zn, K, Na, etc. exist in the fabric filter dust, off gas （OG） sludge, fine ash in converter, and electrical field dust in sinter. Among these, OG sludge gives the finest particle, more than 90% of which is less than 2.51 mm. The dust can lead to a serious negative influence on the production of sintering and blast furnaces （BF） if it is recycled in sintering. The briquette and reduction experimental results showed that the qualified strength could be obtained in the case of 8wt% molasses or 4wt% QT-10 added as binders. Also, more than 75% of metallization ratio, more than 95% of dezincing ratio, as well as more than 80% of K and Na removal rates were achieved for the briquettes kept at 1250℃ for 15 min during the direct reduction process. SEM observation indicated that the rates of indirect reduction and carbonization became dominating when the bri-quettes were kept at 1250℃ for 6 min.

Direct reduction of iron ore by biomass char

By using thermogravimetric analysis the process and mechanism of iron ore reduced by biomass char were investigated and compared with those reduced by coal and coke. It is found that biomass char has a higher reactivity. The increase of carbon-to-oxygen mole ratio （C/O） can lead to the enhancement of reaction rate and reduction fraction, but cannot change the temperature and trend of each reaction. The reaction temperature of hematite reduced by biomass char is at least 100 K lower than that reduced by coal and coke, the maximum reaction rate is 1.57 times as high as that of coal, and the final reaction fraction is much higher. Model calculation indicates that the use of burden composed of biomass char and iron ore for blast furnaces can probably decrease the temperature of the thermal reserve zone and reduce the CO equilibrium concentration.

Mathematical model of the direct reduction of dust composite pellets containing zinc and iron

Direct reduction of dust composite pellets containing zinc and iron was examined by simulating the conditions of actual production process of a rotary hearth furnace （RHF） in laboratory. A mathematical model was constructed to study the reduction kinetics of iron oxides and ZnO in the dust composite pellets. It was validated by comparing the calculated values with experimental results. The effects of furnace temperature, pellet radius, and pellet porosity on the reduction were investigated by the model. It is shown that furnace temperature has obvious influence on both of the reduction of iron oxides and ZnO, but the influence of pellet radius and porosity is much smaller. Model calculations suggest that both of the reduction of iron oxides and ZnO are under mixed control with interface reactions and Boudouard reaction in the early stage, but only with interface reactions in the later stage.

In-situ composite Cu-Cr contact cables with high strength and high conductivity

In order to develop a new type of contact cable with high strengthand high electrical conductivity, Cu-Cr alloy series were selected asmaterials and cu-Cr alloy castings were produced by means ofdirectional solidification continu- ous casting (DSCC) process. theresults show that the fibrillar strengthening phase, β-Cr, orderlyarranges among the copper matrix phase along the wire direction; andmicrostructure of in-situ composite forms, which retains the basicproperty of good conductivity of the copper matrix and meanwhileobtains the strengthening effect ofβ-Cr phase.

Stress Wave Propagation Analysis on Vortex-Induced Vibration of Marine Risers

To analyze the stress wave propagation associated with the vortex-induced vibration（VIV） of a marine riser, this paper employed a multi-signal complex exponential method. This method is an extension of the classical Prony＇s method which decomposes a complicated signal into a number of complex exponential components. Because the proposed method processes multiple signals simultaneously, it can estimate the “global” dominating frequencies（poles） shared by those signals.The complex amplitude（residues） corresponding to the estimated frequencies for those signals is also obtained in the process. As the signals were collected at different locations along the axial direction of a marine riser, the phenomena of the stress wave propagation could be analyzed through the obtained residues of those signals. The Norwegian Deepwater Program（NDP） high mode test data were utilized in the numerical studies, including data sets in both the in-line（IL） and cross-flow（CF） directions. It was found that the most dominant component in the IL direction has its stress wave propagation along the riser being dominated by a standing wave, while that in the CF direction dominated by a traveling wave.

DOA estimation via sparse recovering from the smoothed covariance vector

A direction of arrival（DOA） estimation algorithm is proposed using the concept of sparse representation. In particular, a new sparse signal representation model called the smoothed covariance vector（SCV） is established, which is constructed using the lower left diagonals of the covariance matrix. DOA estimation is then achieved from the SCV by sparse recovering, where two distinguished error limit estimation methods of the constrained optimization are proposed to make the algorithms more robust. The algorithm shows robust performance on DOA estimation in a uniform array, especially for coherent signals. Furthermore, it significantly reduces the computational load compared with those algorithms based on multiple measurement vectors（MMVs）. Simulation results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

Abstracts from Journal of University of Science and Technology Beijing (in Chinese)

Direct reduction-leaching process for high ferric bauxite Wen-tao Hu, Hua-jun Wang, Chuan-yao Sun, Guang-kai Tong, Chun-ling Ji, and Cui-ling Wang Abstract： A direct reduction method was proposed which uses soda ash as the flux and coal as the reductant. By using this method hematite is reduced to iron, which can be recovered by magnetic separation, while A1203 is translated into sodium aluminate, which can be recovered from the solution. The effects of reduction temperature, reduction time, Na2CO3 dosage and reductant dosage on the grade of iron powder, the recovery of iron powder and the recovery of alumina were investigated on the basis of the single factor alteration principle. The process and reaction mechanism were studied by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and energy dispersive spectrometry （EDS）. Orthogonal experiments were designed for optimiz- ing the experimental parameters.

Reduction and melting behavior of carbon composite lateritic bauxite pellets

Direct reduction of low-grade lateritic bauxite was studied at high temperature to recover Fe and beneficiate AlzO3 slag. The re- sults show that a metallization rate of 97.9% and a nugget recovery rate of 85.1% can be achieved when the reducing and melting tempera- tures are 1350 and 1480℃, respectively. Moreover, a higher-grade calcium aluminate slag （A1203 = 50.52wt%） can also be obtained, which is mainly composed of ct-A1203, hercynite （FeAI：O4）, and gehlenite （Ca2A12SiO7）. In addition, high-quality iron nuggets have been produced from low-grade lateritic bauxite. The nugget is mainly composed of iron （93.82wt%） and carbon （3.86wt%）, with almost no gangue （slag）.

The Effects of δ Meson on the Neutron Star Cooling

In the framework of the relativistic mean field theory, the isovector scalar interaction is considered by exchanging δ meson to study the influence of δ meson on the cooling properties of neutron star matter. The calculation results show that with the inclusion of δ meson, the neutrino emissivity of the direct Urca processes increases, and thus enhances the cooling of neutron star matter. When strong proton superfluidity is considered, the theoretical cooling curves agree with the observed thermal radiation for isolated neutron stars.

Two-Dimensional Direction Finding via Sequential Sparse Representations

The problem of two-dimensional direction finding is approached by using a multi-layer Lshaped array. The proposed method is based on two sequential sparse representations,fulfilling respectively the estimation of elevation angles,and azimuth angles. For the estimation of elevation angles,the weighted sub-array smoothing technique for perfect data decorrelation is used to produce a covariance vector suitable for exact sparse representation,related only to the elevation angles. The estimates of elevation angles are then obtained by sparse restoration associated with this elevation angle dependent covariance vector. The estimates of elevation angles are further incorporated with weighted sub-array smoothing to yield a second covariance vector for precise sparse representation related to both elevation angles,and azimuth angles. The estimates of azimuth angles,automatically paired with the estimates of elevation angles,are finally obtained by sparse restoration associated with this latter elevation-azimuth angle related covariance vector. Simulation results are included to illustrate the performance of the proposed method.

Pore Formation Mechanism in W-C Hard Coatings Using Directed Energy Deposition on Tungsten Alloy

Porosity is a common phenomenon and can significantly hinder the quality of the coating.Here,the pore formation mechanism and the characteristics of the single tracks of the W-C coating using directed energy deposition(DED)are systematically investigated.The forming quality of the tracks,the distribution of the pores,and the elemental distribution near the pores are analyzed by the observations of the cross-sections of the tracks.The temperature field of the melt pool is discussed comprehensively to reveal the pore formation mechanism.The results confirm that Ni and Co evaporated during the DED process due to the high temperature of the melt pool.Pores were continuously produced adjacent to the fusion line when the melt pool was about to solidify since the temperature at the solidification front was higher than the boiling point of Ni.The vaporization area at the fusion line was proposed,where Ni could also evaporate at the time the melt pool started to solidify.The relationship between the solidification rate,the size of the vaporization area and the DED parameters(laser power and scanning speed)was established to discuss the causes of severe pores above the fusion line.This work contains a practical guide to reduce or eliminate the porosity in the coating preparation process on the surface of the tungsten alloy.

Effect of Copper Content on the Direct Process of Organosilane Synthesis from Silicon and Methyl Chloride

The effect of copper concentration on the performance of the catalytic reaction between silicon and methyl chloride was investigated using online gas chromatogram. The catalyst concentration greatly influences various aspects of the direct organosilane synthesis process, including the reaction rate, the selec- tivity, and the silicon conversion. The reaction activity and the silicon conversion increase as the catalyst concentration increases. However, the reaction selectivity decreases for the catalyst concentrations more .than 9 wt.%. The cross-sections of deactivated contact mass particles were observed by optical microscopy and analyzed by scanning electron microscope combined with energy dispersive X-ray detector （SEM-EDX） The observations showed that a textured substance formed on the original flat surface of the silicon particles after deactivation with copper only in a shallow surface layer of the contact mass. This indicates that the copper diffusion is the rate limiting step which causes the reaction deactivation.

Effects of δ mesons on baryonic direct Urca processes in neutron star matter

This study investigates the relativistic neutrino emissivity of the nucleonic and hyperonic direct Urca processes in the degenerate baryon matter of neutron stars, within the framework of relativistic mean field theory. In particular, we study the influence of the isovector scalar interaction on the nucleonic and hyperonic direct Urca processes by exchanging δ mesons. The results indicate that δ mesons lead to obvious enhancement of the total neutrino emissivity, which must result in a more rapid cooling rate of neutron star matter.