Iron and Steel Division - Further Information on Sampling Liquid Steel for Dissolved Oxygen (TN)

FOR a better understanding of the melting and refining processes, the oxygen content of the steel bath should be determined. The oxygen content influences many process and product variables such as the efficiency of alloy recoveries, the ingot structure (through reaction with carbon in the steel), certain reaction rates, cleanliness (formation of indigenous oxide inclusions), and mechanical properties. Many methods of sampling liquid steel for oxygen have been devised. These methods can be divided into two main groups: 1) taking samples directly in the furnace or ladle;'-'0 2) removing the metal from the furnace or ladle in a sampling spoon and pouring it into a mold, or drawing the metal from the spoon into a sample holder.11-l4 The advantages and disadvantages of the two general sampling methods are presented in Table I. The bomb-sampling technique described by Huff, Bailey, and Richards8 has been used by the Crucible Steel Co. in certain research projects where oxygen contents were needed. It was recognized that a localized boiling condition could result when the mold is introduced into the steel bath, although the work of Gilbert and Bailey9 seems to indicate that the carbon boil occurring in the bomb-sampler cavity has a negligible effect on the oxygen content. In order to confirm the reported negligible effect of a carbon boil, additional work was done with adaptations of the conventional bomb sampler. The methods used are shown in Fig. 1 and are as follows: 1) Type A: aluminum wire (0.125-in. diam) coil in cavity; steel cap over mouth 2) Type B: aluminum cup in cavity; aluminum cap over mouth, 3) Type C: aluminum cup in cavity; steel cap over mouth, 4) Type D: fine aluminum wire (0.013-in. diam) in cavity; steel cap over mouth. The amount of aluminum wire in the Type A and D samples varied from 0.8 to 1.2 pct of the sample weight. The aluminum cups averaged 2.0 pct of the sample weight; the latter were used to ensure that the steel contacting the walls of the bomb cavity was fully killed. Samples were taken from plain carbon heats made in open-hearth furnaces. This grade of steel before silicon additions is essentially an Fe-C alloy and the effects of other alloying elements on the oxygen activity can be neglected. The results of sampling with the bomb samplers is shown in Fig. 2 where the percent oxygen is plotted against the percent carbon on log-log paper. Spoon sample results on the same grade of steel where the sample was killed in the spoon are shown in Fig. 3. The oxygen contents were determined by the vacuum fusion method. A comparison of Figs. 2 and 3 shows that the oxygen concentrations obtained with the spoon-sampling method (metal killed in the spoon after slag removed