Effect of Mg Treatment on the Nucleation and Ostwald Growth of Inclusions in Fe-O-Al-Mg Melt

This study aimed to investigate the effect of Mg treatment on the nucleation and ostwald growth of inclusions. Deoxidized experiments with Al (0.05%Al) and Al-Mg (0.05%Al + 0.03%Mg) were carried out at 1873 K, and the composition, number, and size of inclusions were studied as a function of holding time. Homogeneous nucleation theory and ostwald ripening were utilized to calculate the nucleation rate, the critical size of nuclei, and coarsening rate of inclusions. The results show that small inclusions were more easily found in the steels with Al-Mg complex deoxidation, and the number of inclusions with Al-Mg complex deoxidation is larger at an early stage of deoxidation. The critical size of nuclei increases in the order of MgAl2O4 (0.3–0.4 nm) < Al2O3 (0.4–0.6 nm), and the nucleation rate increases in the order of Al2O3 (1100 cm−3 s−1) < MgAl2O4 (1200 cm−3s−1), which is consistent with the experimental results. Moreover, the coarsening rate of MgAl2O4 inclusions was smaller than Al2O3 inclusions in both the value of kd(cal.) from ostwald growth and the value of kd(obs.) from inclusion size. The effect of Mg addition on coarsening of inclusion was analyzed and their mechanism was discussed based on ostwald ripening theory and Factsage calculation.

Results of the International Wet Steam Modeling Project

The purpose of the “International Wet Steam Modeling Project” is to review the ability of computational methods to predict condensing steam flows. The results of numerous wet-steam methods are compared with each other and with experimental data for several nozzle test cases. The spread of computed results is quite noticeable and the present paper endeavours to explain some of the reasons for this. Generally, however, the results confirm that reasonable agreement with experiment is obtained by using classical homogeneous nucleation theory corrected for non-isothermal effects, combined with Young’s droplet growth model. Some calibration of the latter is however required. The equation of state is also shown to have a significant impact on the location of the Wilson point, thus adding to the uncertainty surrounding the condensation theory. With respect to the validation of wet-steam models it is shown that some of the commonly used nozzle test cases have design deficiencies which are particularly apparent in the context of two- and three-dimensional computations. In particular, it is difficult to separate out condensation phenomena from boundary layer effects unless the nozzle geometry is carefully designed to provide near-one-dimensional flow.