A kinetic model (effective equilibrium reaction zone model) was developed to simulate the decarburization reaction in the Ruhrstahl Heraeus (RH) degassing process. The model assumes that the chemical reactions reach equilibrium in designated effective reaction volumes near reaction interfaces. After the RH degassing process was divided into various reaction zones, the effective reaction volumes of each reaction zone were expressed as a function of the process conditions, based on physical descriptions of the reaction mechanisms. The influence of chemical reaction between RH slag and RH steel to the decarburization phenomena was considered for the first time. The calculated C and O profiles by the present model are in good agreement with industrial operation data for various steel compositions and process conditions. It is found that RH slag can serve as an oxygen reservoir to supply O during RH decarburization process, which induces the observed deviation of the C and O contents from their ideal stoichiometric trajectory. The model is applied to the calculation of ferromanganese addition in the RH process to simulate the C pickup in the steel. The present model provides an efficient tool to understand and optimize the RH degassing process.
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