Radioactive Method for the Determination of Slag Mass during the Basic Open-Hearth Steel-making Process

Abstract

IN open-hearth steel-making, chemical reactions take place between the metal bath and a supernatant slag layer, and any material balance on the process demands an accurate knowledge of the masses involved. Metal mass varies only slightly throughout a heat and can be assessed with acceptable accuracy from the amount of steel produced. Slag mass, however, varies considerably throughout a heat, and there is a great need for a method of estimating it which has greater accuracy than the present methods based on a lime/magnesia or a phosphorus/manganese balance.