38 / 2015-05-19 19:46:24

Applying Symmetric Simplex Experimental Design Method to Design Al-Si-Mn Deoxidizer with a Low Aluminum Content

symmetric simplex experimental design method, deoxidizer, design, stainless steel, Al-Si-Mn

The development of deoxidizers has been a research field that metallargists have been working on and keep progressing in for a long time. After a de-oxidation by aluminum-containing deoxidizers, it is likely to cause a nozzle clogging and impact mechanical properties and surface quality of stainless steel if the de-oxidation isn’t operated appropriately and the floating of Al2O3 in the molten steel isn’t thorough. Thus, it is important to find an Al-Si-Mn deoxidizer that has a low aluminum-containing, strong de-oxidation capacity and a high specific density. In the present study the de-oxidation capacity was taken as the index, and the symmetric simplex experimental design method with simplex lattice was used to design the 9 deoxidizers with different components were taken based on the constraint conditions. The 9 deoxidizers were made up in an electric resistance furnace. Then the de-oxidation experiments were conducted in the laboratory to get the best deoxidizer compositions according to de-oxidation rate of each deoxidizer. Results shows that judging from the de-oxidation rate and deoxidation time comprehensively, deoxidizer with 25.66%Al-28.67%Si-45.67% Mn in the present study is the best among the 9 deoxidizers in the experiments, which is competitive to pure Al with 56.88% de-oxidation rate. The regression relationship between de-oxidation rate and component concentrations in the deoxidizer is  =188.16[Al]-59.11[Si]+35.62[Mn]+ 287.40[Al] [Si]-266.36[Al] [Mn]+131.17[Si] [Mn]. The best deoxidizer composition is 25%Al-45%Si-30%Mn.