Capillary Infiltration of Slag in Hydrogen-Direct Reduced Iron and Influence on Melting

The infiltration of slag into the porous structure of Hydrogen Direct Reduced Iron (H-DRI) was studied with computational fluid dynamics to determine the rate of slag infiltration and its effect on heating and melting of H-DRI. It was found that liquid slag rising in an iron walled capillary quickly exchanges its heat and solidifies within 5 capillary radii from the inlet. The resulting effect is that slag infiltration into a porous structure can only occur when the local temperature of the iron matrix is higher than the slag melting temperature of 1523 𝐾.