ISIJ International, Vol.

56 (2016),
ISIJ International,
No. 4
Vol. 56 (2016), No. 4, pp. 527536

Importance of Melt Generation and Properties in Iron Ore

Sintering
Dongmei LIU* and Chin Eng LOO
School of Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, The University of Newcastle, NSW 2308 Australia.
(Received on August 19, 2015; accepted on November 27, 2015)

In iron ore sintering material coalescence leading to densification occurs in the flame front. Unless a
certain level of material coalescence is achieved, the obtained sinter product will not have the necessary
size or load-bearing strength requirements. The efficiency of this process is dependent on melt volume
and flowability of the molten system at flame front. Melt volume is greatly affected by the assimilation
process which depends on ore properties composition, porosity and size. The aim of this study is to
provide information on the effect of solids ratio and melt properties on coalescence. In a sinter plant these
parameters alter with changing blend composition. In this study, the behaviour of tablets containing four
different iron sources: porous and dense ores, sinter and a chemical reagent, was studied in two fashions:
theoretically the influence of assimilation on the properties of the melt and the three-phase system was
examined; by experiments with an electric furnace, material coalescence was quantified using sinter density and pore property analysis. Results show that the porous ore tablet was more deformable and had a
higher densification degree compared with the dense ore tablet. The highest density was found for the
tablets containing sinter and chemical grade reagents. The results indicate that increased level of porous
ore or sinter of return fines may enhance coalescence in sintering.
KEY WORDS: iron ore sintering; ore properties; assimilation; melt properties; densification; coalescence;
pore structure.

by a layer of fine adhering materials, which reacts readily (because of the intimate contact between iron oxides,
gangue and fluxes) to form a primary melt on heating.2,3)
Significant melt forms as a result of the assimilation of the
nuclear particles into melt.46) The chemical composition of
the melt changes over the melt formation period7) and this
together with melt volume will also have a large influence
on the efficiency of the coalescence/aggregation process.
Previous studies have shown that melt chemical composition is critical because of its influence on melt viscosity.8)
The volume of unreacted iron ore suspended in the melt is
another important factor because it is ultimately the apparent viscosity of the three-phase mixture that determines the
degree of coalescence achieved around the flame front.9) For
this same reason air bubbles trapped in the melt will also
influence the coalescence process.
The apparent viscosity of the three-phase mixture is
the major resistance that the driving surface force has to
overcome for coalescence to occur. Surface forces operate at every level and they not only influence the size of
the clusters in the flame front. When melt viscosity is low
the trapped bubbles will be more rounded and coalesce
more readily to form larger bubbles. Clusters densify more
at reduced melt viscosity because increasing bubble size
facilitates their leaving the melt. These then solidify into
stronger sinter particles because of reduced porosity and
cracks running into rounder pores have a higher probability
of being arrested.

1.Introduction
In iron ore sintering, the blended particulate bed on the
strand is partially melted in the flame front to form a threephase solid-melt-gas mix. The presence of melt causes the
mix to reshape, coalesce and aggregate into dense clusters.
With the passing of the flame front, a solidified bed composed of identifiable large particles is obtained. On shattering the bed these particles are released. The larger particles,
the product of the sintering process, are sent to the blast
furnace for reduction into iron. The smaller fraction (typically minus 4 mm), which originate from the finer or more
porous (hence, weaker) clusters, are recycled back into the
sinter plant feed mix.
The particulate bed on a sinter strand is composed of
granules, formed from a blended mix of iron ores, fluxes,
recycled fine sinter, miscellaneous plant fines and coke
breeze.1) The flame front in sintering is established when
coke in the top layer is set alight under an ignition hood.
Suction applied at the bottom of the bed and the resulting
downdraught causes the flame front to descend down the
bed. The speed of the front is a strong function of the combustion rate of the coke particles in the different horizontal
layers down the bed.
Granules have a large nuclear particle core encapsulated
* Corresponding author: E-mail: Dongmei.Liu@newcastle.edu.au
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2355/isijinternational.ISIJINT-2015-489

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A certain level of material coalescence is needed to

ensure that sinter particles have the required size or loadbearing strength. The aim of this study is to provide information on the effect of solids level and melt properties on
coalescence. On a sinter strand all these parameters change
when blend composition is altered. Replacing a dense ore
with a porous ore will lead to increased solids assimilation,
increased melt volume and also the formation of a melt
higher in iron oxide. In this study, several measures will be
used to quantify coalescence. Densification of the sample
is the simplest measure used. Image analysis will also be
used to quantify the properties of the pores, which reflect
coalescence achieved.

Table 1. Chemical composition and density of the ground ores

and sinter.
Component

Porous ore

Dense ore

Sinter

Total Fe

63.38

65.32

59.31

FeO

0.29

0.29

5.06

SiO2

2.68

4.22

4.24

CaO

0.12

0.06

7.70

MgO

0.06

0.03

1.51

Al2O3

0.89

1.18

1.56

0.048

0.058

0.042

5.57

0.34

4.33

4.88

4.54

LOI
3

Density (t m )

2.Experimental
The experimental program adopted involved sintering
pressed cylindrical tablets of the mixes in coal ash fusion
furnace (CAF). In the previous studies,8) tablets containing
only manufactured Analar high-grade chemical reagents
were used. In this study four different tablets are compared
a reagent tablet similar to those used in the previous studies,
a porous ore tablet, a dense ore tablet and a sinter tablet.
The dense ore is from South Africa while the porous ore
is from Western Australia. The sinter is from a commercial operation in Australia. Crushed samples of these three
materials are blended with chemical reagents and pressed
to make the tablets for sintering. As the two ores and the
sinter would assimilate at different rates into melt, it is to be
expected that the melts generated in the tablets containing
these materials would be quite different. Projected images
of the cylinder in the CAF were photographed at different
temperatures and the information used to determine sample
density and the degree of coalescence attained.5,8) In this
study, pores in the sintered tablets were also characterised
using image analysis.5)

and kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) and silica. Chemical grade

magnetite was added to achieve the required FeO, and it
was assumed that it did not undergo oxidation during sintering. Fe requirements were sourced from the iron ores and,
in part, from the chemical magnetite. In some cases minor
trimming with chemical grade silica and hematite was
required to meet the target SiO2 and Fe2O3 levels.
The weights of dense ore and porous ore in the tablet
were not the same because of their differences in chemical
compositions (Table 1). To obtain the same final chemical composition (Table 2), the porous ore tablet has more
ore particles. This difference will have an influence on the
assimilation process, the chemical composition of the melts
and also the solids content of the molten mixture. However,
the difference is unlikely to be large because the total Fe
content of the porous ore is only slightly lower than that
of the dense ore - 63.38 mass% compared to 65.32 mass%.
In addition, the difference in ore mass will decrease further
once the porous ore has undergone calcination, which will
cause a weight loss of around 5 mass% (LOI values in Table
1). When these two factors are considered, the mass of ores
in the two tablets prior to melt formation should be quite
comparable.
Keeping the chemical composition of the tablets similar
also has other implications. The fines reagent mix has a
higher lime content in the high silica iron ore compared to
the case with a low silica ore. If the amount of ores assimilated for the two cases is low then the melt generated from
the high silica ore mixture will have a higher basicity. But
as more ores are assimilated the basicity of the two cases
will start to approach the sinter basicity value of 1.82 (from
Table 2). A sinter mix of the same chemical composition
given in Table 2, using only analytical grade reagents and
termed Reagent tablet, was also studied. Using a Universal
Testing Machine - Shimadzu (AGS-10kND) - aliquots (to
fill the die) of 2.1 g blended sinter mixes were pressed into
13 mm diameter cylindrical tablets under a force of 100 N.
In using the same force the inter-particle porosity of all the
tablets will not be too different. The mass of each tablet was
determined prior to sintering.

2.1. Sample Preparation

Samples of the sinter and two ores were ground to 97%
passing 100 m using a ring mill. A liquid pycnometer was
used to determine the density of the ground products. The
chemical compositions as well as the densities for these
three materials are shown in Table 1. These samples do not
represent any traded iron ore in properties: they are screened
non-representative samples. The porous ore contains significant goethite (indicated by the large loss-on-ignition, LOI,
figure of 5.57 mass%). Goethite is not as dense as hematite
and this together with its high inherent porosity results in a
low density value.10) Of the three materials, the dense ore
has the highest density and this is to be expected. Sinter
has quite a high level of lime but contains no volatiles. Full
particle size distributions of the three materials were determined using a MasterSizer, and the results given in Fig. 1
show that sinter has slightly less fine material, which can
have some effect on the density results.
The ground ores were mixed with analytical grade
reagents - supplied by Sigma-Aldrich, Australia and with a
size of less than 10 m (Fig. 1) - to give a blend that has a
target sinter chemical composition shown in Table 2. CaO,
MgO, Al2O3 and SiO2 requirements were met through the
addition of limestone (CaCO3), magnesium oxide (MgCO3)
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2.2. Apparatus and Procedure

The cylinders, seated on alumina tiles, were introduced
in a Carbolite CAF furnace set at 400C. Details of this
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Fig. 1. Size fractions of ground natural material and chemical reagent.

level of the system. As these two processes occur in tandem,

the properties of the pores in the sintered sample can also
be used to quantify the degree of coalescence obtained as a
function of temperature.

Table 2. Chemical composition of the sinter mix.

Mass percentage (%)
FeT

FeO

Al2O3

SiO2

MgO

CaO

55.95

5.06

1.56

4.24

1.51

7.70

2.3.1. Densification
Sample densification gives a macro-measure of coalescence. As proposed in previous paper,8) this is reasonable
because the samples reshape, collect, densify and shrink
with the formation of melt. Initial melt forms at around
1140C, so the whole densification process in iron ore sintering can be divided into two regimes: solid phase sintering
(up to 1140C, Regime 1) and liquid phase sintering (above
1140C, Regime 2). In Regime 1 the changes in sample
dimensions cannot be attributed to work done by the melt.
The tablet decreases in size when particles rearrange, flux
particles calcine, goethite and kaolinite dehydrate and ionic
bonds develop between flux and the iron ore particles. In
Regime 2 it can be assumed that melt is the main cause
of size reduction. The changes in sample mass can be
determined theoretically from the chemical analyses of the
components. In this study the reduction in mass caused by
the thermal decomposition of hematite into magnetite is less
than 2 mass% and will be ignored.
Therefore, at any given sample temperature, the density
of the transforming sample can be determined from the volume of the sample as indicated by the captured images
and the calculated sample mass. Because the samples do
not have the same shrinkage behaviour prior to 1140C,
densification degree was used as a measure of coalescence.
This is defined as the ratio of sample density at any tempera-

technique have been discussed in previous studies.8) For all

experiments the same heating temperature profile used to
sinter the cylinders. The work tube was purged with nitrogen for 5 minutes at 400C. This was followed by heating
under ambient air conditions with an oxygen partial pressure
of 21.3 kPa. The heating rate was set at 7C per minute to
1260C and then at 5C per minute to a maximum temperature of 1350C per minute. The sample was kept at this
temperature for 2 minutes to ensure that it had fully reached
the set maximum temperature. Projected 2-D images of
the samples were captured as a function of the increasing
temperature at a rate of 1 image per C from 800C. Each
experiment was repeated three times and the average value
was taken. At the end of tests, the sintered tablets were
mounted in a low reflectance resin and polished to obtain a
surface for optical microscopy studies.
2.3. Quantifying Coalescence
During sintering, coalescence proceeds at two levels.
While the material is moving and reshaping into clusters,
there are also changes at the micro-level within the melt.
Specifically this involves bubbles coalescing and transforming into more spherical shapes. At both the micro and macro
levels coalescence occurs spontaneously to lower the energy
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ture above 1140C to the sample density at reference temperature of 1140C (the density at transition state between
two regimes). Using this approach all the samples have a
common base point and a higher densification degree value
indicates that a higher level of the coalescence has been
achieved because of the formation of melt.
2.3.2. Pore Structure
The level of micro-coalescence was determined through
analysing the properties of the pores in the analogue sinters.
The images of these polished analogue sinters were taken
using a digital camera mounted on a Zeiss Axioskop optical
microscope at magnifications of 50 (sinter micrographs
in this paper) and 100 (pore property analysis). Settings
on the microscope were determined to give the best image
quality for analysing pore structures.
The images were processed using commercial software,
Kontron KS400. An appropriate greyscale threshold value
had to be set to differentiate resin and solid. A minimum
pore diameter of 4 m was applied to the analysis due to
the difficulty in differentiating small glassy phases from
small pores which have not been penetrated by resin. Image
analysis software was used to determine the equivalent
circle diameter and circle shape factor of the pores, and the
total pore area or porosity. More details of the techniques
used to determine these parameters have been given in previous studies.11) If two samples have the same base porosity
value, then coalescence and densification can be assumed to
be higher for the tablet with: a) lower porosity, b) larger,
more spherical pores at the same porosity, and c) a higher
pore circle factor when porosity and pore size distribution
are comparable.
For each sample tens images of dimensions 1.59 mm by
1.17 mm were analysed. The total number of pores considered is in the order of ten thousand. The forces causing
pores to reshape (into more spherical structures) increases as
pore size decreases. This means that fine pores have a circle
factor close to unity and values do not change significantly
between the samples.5) On the other hand, only large differences are obtained from the large pores. Obviously, to
ensure that results are representative the evaluation needs to
consider as many pores as possible. This trade-off between
significance and meaningfulness of results was carefully
considered as an increase in pore number reduces the difference in the pore properties results among tablets, as shown
in Fig. 2. In this study, a decision was made to consider only
the 1% (in number) largest pores.

Fig. 2. Average equivalent pore diameters of different percentage

of largest pores for four tablets.

where md is the mass of solids transferring into melts; t is

the dissolution time; A is the melt-solid contact area which
is normal to the direction of mass transfer, c is the concentration difference, K and n are constants, which are usually
determined empirically.
Equation (1) shows that solids dissolution rate increases
with increasing concentration difference and contact area.
In assimilating a hematite nuclear particle, the concentration
of hematite in the melt would be expected to influence the
concentration driving force value i.e., difference between
solid-liquid interface and bulk values. However, the system
is much more complicated because increasing melt hematite
level will also alter its liquidus temperature and viscosity. This factor could have a greater effect on decreasing
assimilation rate than the change in concentration driving
force because increasing viscosity will greatly slow down
the diffusion of dissolved hematite from the interface to the
bulk of the melt.
Porous ores have a large surface area value6) because
melts are capable of penetrating into their intra-particle
pores. Greater penetration results in larger reaction areas.
This is governed by the pressure difference across the meniscus curvature as postulated by Young13) and Laplace.14) For
very fine pores significant time is required to reach the
equilibrium state but this is never achieved in sintering
because pores grow in width as their walls are assimilated.
Nevertheless, the Washburn equation15) describing the penetration of liquid into a solid as a function of time is worthy
of some consideration:

3.Theoretical
3.1. Solids Assimilation
Assimilation is a very important process in iron ore sintering. The reaction essentially involves the dissolution of
the nuclear particle of a granule by melts generated from the
outer adhering fines layer. In sintering, the time at which
the descending flame front spends at a particular position of
the bed is around three minutes. The total amount of solids
assimilated is dependent on the flame front residence time,
the kinetics of the process and the reaction surface area. The
dissolution rate can be expressed as:12)
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dmd
= KAc n ............................... (1)
dt

cos m2 s 2 2 r
m 2p = t
....................... (2)
2 m

where mp is the mass of melts that penetrate into the solids; t

is penetrating time; is the contact angle of melts on solid;
m is melt density; is melt surface tension; m is melt
viscosity; s is the cross-sectional area of particle; is the
void fraction of particle; r is the mean radius of capillaries.
Some early studies indicated that formed sintering melts
have excellent wetting properties and the contact angle of
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these melts on iron ore surface is less than 10.16) For a

given particle size, high particle porosity, high melt surface
tension and low melt viscosity will increase melt penetration rate. Equation (2) indicates a greater dependence on
porosity than on viscosity. This indicates that porous ore
nuclear particles would assimilate very readily because of
the very large melt penetration rate and reaction area. This
is consistent with results obtained from ore assimilation
studies (e.g.5,10,17,18)). When assimilation rate is high the
volume of solids in the mix decreases rapidly and this has
the effect of greatly reducing the apparent viscosity of the
three-phase mix in the flame front, which would enhance the
coalescence process.8)

Ore porosity also has a large influence on reducing the

bulk density of the bed formed for sintering. During sintering the flame front descends at a faster speed at reduced
bed bulk density and this will have an impact on the residence time available for assimilation.10,17,18) In this study,
the thermal conditions are kept unchanged for all the tests
regardless of the ores used. This must be borne in mind
when assessing the impact of the experimental results on
coalescence in plant-scale sintering.
3.2. Physio-chemical Properties after Assimilation
3.2.1. Melt Compositions
On a sinter strand the properties of the melt change con-

Fig. 3. Effect of changes in sinter relict ore level on melt chemical composition.

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tinuously as solids are assimilated into the melt. Other than

increasing melt volume, this also changes melt chemical
composition, physical properties and efficacy of the coalescence process. Fundamental studies have shown that the
assimilation is a strong function of ore porosity.5,10) Formed
melts have excellent wetting properties and are capable of
imbibing into the natural pore in iron ores. When an ore
contains goethite the number of accessible pores increases
significantly. Melt penetration greatly increases the surface
area available for assimilation.
Theoretically, it is possible to assess these changes for the
two iron ores based on their chemical compositions (Table
1) and that of the blend (Table 2). For the calculation, it
is assumed that the gangue minerals are evenly distributed
within the ore. The results are shown in Fig. 3 and the
ordinate represents the percent unassimilated or relict ore in
the sinter. The silica content of the dense ore is higher than
that of porous ore, and so increasing assimilation of this ore
more silica will enter into the melt, which results in a faster
decrease in melt basicity. On the other hand, as the porous
ore has much lower silica and more chemical reagent silica
has to be added to the mix to achieve the same basicity of
blend, the melt basicity is lower and decreases more gently
when decreasing the level of relict. The changes in values
of all the other oxides in Fig. 3 can be explained using the
chemical analyses of the ores and the sinter shown in Tables
1 and 2.

Fig. 4. Melt surface tension vs. relict ore.

3.2.2. Viscosity and Surface Tension of Melt

The physio-chemical properties of molten mix at flame
front have a significant effect on the coalescence process.
In sintering, inertial and gravitational forces are small compared to surface and viscous forces.19) In particular, melt
surface tension is the dominant driving force while the
apparent viscosity of molten mix is the main resisting force.
These two key factors are affected by temperature and the
assimilation process, which determine melt volume/solids
concentration and compositions. These parameters can be
obtained using the models reported in literature.2025)
The calculated surface tension using the equations presented by Nakashima and Mori,20) shown in Fig. 4, remains
relatively unchanged for both ore types over the entire
assimilation level range, which appears that surface tension
is quite independent of melt chemical composition.
Figure 5(a) shows the changes in viscosity as a result of
increased ore assimilation. As more ore enters into melt the
viscosity of the melt increases. A major reason for this is the
decrease in basicity of the melt. Figure 5(a) also shows that
melts generated from the porous ore are more viscous than
those from the dense ore. Again, the main reason is that the
starting reagents mix has a much higher basicity and at the
levels of assimilation considered, melts generated in the mix
containing the dense ore still has a higher basicity.
In the flame front a three-phase system is encountered,
which means that the apparent viscosity of the mix is the
resistance that the surface forces in the liquid has to overcome. It is indicated in Fig. 5 that apparent viscosity is
the most influential parameter because surface tension of
the melts does not vary significantly if changes in chemical composition are large. The method used to assess this
parameter has been given. For the two cases dense and
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Fig. 5. Viscosity vs. ore type.

porous ore it is possible to estimate the apparent viscosity

of the mix as some assumptions are made about the level of
relict ores present. Clearly, the sample containing the porous
ore will have lower relict ore content.
In this study, the natural iron ores used have been ground
to 97% passing 100 m size. For this reason, the ores would
be quite reactive and the amount of iron ore remaining
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unassimilated would be quite small. On an operating sinter

machine this would not be the case and the three phase system generated from the dense ore would have higher relict
ore content. The actual amounts would depend on many
factors such as ore size and its composition, temperature of
the flame front and its speed, and the basicity and gangue
content of the sinter mix. For the purpose of assessing the
difference in apparent viscosity between the two cases, it
is assumed that 30 mass% of dense iron ore and 10 mass%
of porous ore remains unassimilated in the melt. In a real
system these values would be achieved closer to the trailing edge of heat wave. For dense ore mix, the basicity of
the generated melt would be 2.6 compared to 2.0 for the
porous ore mix.
Figure 5(b) shows the apparent viscosity of the two mixes.
It is to be noted from Figs. 5(a) and 5(b) that although the
melt generated from the mix containing the porous ore is
more viscous, the apparent viscosity values show the opposite trend. This means that the solids in the melt are exerting
a very large influence on the apparent viscosity value. These
results suggest that porous ores form a more deformable
three-phase system in the flame front and this should facilitate more material coalescence and densification.
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Dense and Porous Ores
The assimilation process is greatly influenced by the
physical and chemical properties of the ore. Consequently,
melt volume and composition obtained in this study would
vary depending on whether a dense or porous ore was being
assimilated. Pressed tablets containing dense and porous
ores - termed Dense ore and Porous ore tablets - were
sintered and from their changing shapes, tablet density as a
function of temperature was determined and used to assess
sample coalescence. The results are given in Fig. 6(a). As
expected, the original tablet bulk density is higher for the
sample containing the dense ore. On heating the tablets
densify. By 1350C the density of the tablets are not too different, indicating that the mix containing the porous ore has
densified more i.e., coalescence was more efficient for this
mix. The obtained comparable density results at 1350C are
not surprising because the size of iron ore particles used was
under 100 m and most of the porous ore particles would
have reacted and their intra-particle porosity transferred into
the melt and the formed bubbles released.
As mentioned in Section 2.3.1, coalescence achieved
for different samples can be compared using densification
degree. This involves normalising the tablet density results
at any given temperature to a base density value obtained at
a temperature of 1140C - where calcination and dehydration reactions have been completed. Densification degree
eliminates the differences in starting conditions and gives
a more accurate measure of tablet deformation, coalescence and densification processes. A higher densification
degree indicates that more reshaping and deformation have
taken place. The densification degrees for the porous and
dense ore tablets are shown in Fig. 6(b). In Regime 1 the
porous ore tablet has a higher porosity (especially after the
dehydration of the goethite) which means that the surface
forces have more work to do in order that the tablet reaches

Fig. 6. Densification of sinter mixes.

the same density value as that for the tablet containing the
dense ore. The results shown in Fig. 6(b) indicate that this is
indeed the case as the densification degree for the porous ore
mix was higher. This means that the densification for this
mix in Regime 2 was more effective. If this was not the case
then the same final tablet density value shown in Fig. 6(a)
would not be achieved. The densification degree results with
the error of less than 1% for three repeated tests support
the theoretical analysis given in in Section 3. This means
that beds formed for sintering may have lower bulk density
because high levels of porous ores are used but the density
of the ensuing sinter product will still be dense and strong
because the coalescence process has been very effective.
Micrographs showing the typical structure of the samples
from the CAF are given in Fig. 7. They show the presence
of some unreacted ore particles, more in the dense ore
sample. This is in line with expectations. It is also very
evident that the porous ore mix has smaller pores. Using
image analysis, sample porosity was determined and results
are shown in Fig. 8. As expected, the porosity is comparable
but slightly lower for dense ore sample - 29% compared to
31% for the porous ore sample. These results are consistent
with the density results obtained at 1350C, of 3.54 t m 3
for the dense ore tablet and 3.45 t m 3 for the porous ore
sample. Strictly these changes are not large and could be
well within the range of experimental error.
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Fig. 7. Micro-structures of tablets with different types of iron ore at 1350C.

Fig. 8. Influence of iron ore properties on sinter porosity.

The average properties of 1% largest pores in the samples

were also compared in Fig. 9. The average equivalent circle
diameters of these 1% pores for the mixes with dense and
porous ores are clearly different and the values are shown
in Fig. 9(a). Figure 9(b) shows the averaged circle shape
factor values. This parameter characterises the roundness of
the pores and the value for a circle is unity. Circle factor is
fundamentally dependent on melt viscosity and pore diameter. Smaller pores have a larger acting surface force and
for the same melt viscosity will have a larger circle factor.
Theoretical evaluation shows that on heating the porous
ore tablets have higher melt viscosity but a lower apparent
viscosity. It is to be expected that both these factors will
influence the rounding and coalescence of pores, although it
is possible that apparent viscosity has a greater influence on
pore coalescence. For these two mixes the original porosity
of the tablets should be quite comparable because the ore
particles were crushed to the same size and the same pressure was applied to form the tablets. The pores in the dense
ore tablet are larger (Fig. 7(a)) most probably because they
were originally inter-particle pores, and not because there
has been increased coalescence of pores. The higher level of
solids has interfered with the rise of pores (bubbles) to rise
to surface of the melt and their leaving the melt. Although
these pores are larger than the pores in the porous ore tablets, they have a lower circle factor in spite of lower melt
viscosity, probably because of the higher solids content.
When goethite in the porous ore dehydrates very fine pores
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Fig. 9. Properties of the 1% largest pores in all the tablets.

are generated between the newly-formed hematite crystallites. The lower apparent viscosity of the melt has allowed
the larger inter-particle pores to leave the melt and enhance
the reshaping of the pores.
In the Asia Pacific region sinter mixes have a high proportion of porous ores compared to sinter mixes two decades
ago. These results indicate that current sinter mixes gives
good sintering performance and also produces strong sinter.
These results have been confirmed in sinter pot tests and
plant trials and operations.
4.2. Fine Sinter and Chemical Reagent
In commercial sintering operations sinter particles finer
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Fig. 10. Micro-structures of tablets with ground plant sinter and analogue sinter mix at 1350C.

than 5 mm are not suitable for charging into blast furnace

because of their detrimental effect on the permeability of the
ferrous burden layer. These fines are recycled back to the
sinter plant and included into the sinter mix as return sinter
fines. Having been through the sintering cycle, the lime
in return fines is well-distributed throughout the solidified
melts and they should remelt again at lower temperatures.
For this reason, in sinter pot tests, it is frequently observed
that increasing the level of return fines in a sinter mix does
not have an impact on the energy requirements for sintering.
It is to be expected that replacing ore particles with return
fines particles would have an impact on melt generation and
properties. However, the sinter used in this study has around
10 vol.% unreacted ore content, which would influence
apparent viscosity values. The size distribution of the particles in the reagent tablet would be the finest and a sintered
reagent tablets would have comparatively small amounts, if
any, of unreacted ore.
Results for the sinter and reagent tablets are shown in
Figs. 6, 8 and 9 and the following discussion will include
comparisons with tablets containing dense and porous ores.
The results in Fig. 6(a) show that the original bulk density of
the reagent tablet is the lowest and that for the sinter tablet
is the highest. Sinter has been through an intensive heating
cycle and this means that the volatile content of the sinter
tablet is much lower and material densification would also
have occurred. The ground sinter is also coarser and has a
broader size distribution compared to the ground dense and
porous ores as shown in Fig. 1, which would mean a tighter
packing of the particles in the bed. The reagent tablet would
have the highest inter-particle porosity because the particles
are all very fine (minus 10 m) and the spread in size distribution is smaller. However, with heating the densities
of these two tablets converged by the end of Regime 1 (at
1140C). The reason is because the sinter tablet is initially
dense and undergoes further coalescence and densification
on heating. Also, the reagent tablet is the most reactive
because of the fine particle size distribution and the pores
are evenly distributed. The absence of large particles would
enhance the movement of pores out of the sample. Above
this temperature the tablets are much denser than equivalent
tablets produced with dense and porous ores. This is in
consistence with the results of these tablets having a much
lower porosity (Fig. 8).

The densification degree results for the two tablets in

Regime 2 are shown in Fig. 6(b). At temperatures above
about 1250C, both show a lower degree of densification
compared to the ore pellets. As indicated this sinter and
reagent chemicals are extremely reactive. Pores leave the
melt easily but the very fine pores are difficult to remove
because they rise very slowly. This essentially means the
densification slows down and the last 10% (Fig. 8) of the
pores, which are comparatively fine (Fig. 9(a)), does not
leave the melt easily.
The micrographs in Fig. 10 show that the pores are larger
and rounder in the sinter tablet. There is less unreacted
hematite and more secondary hematite compared to the
micrographs in Fig. 7, indicating that more assimilation
has occurred compared to the two ore tablets. Figures 8
and 9 show the pore results of the two tablets on heating to
1350C. The porosity for sintered sinter and reagent tablets
is around 10%, which is much lower than the values for the
two ore tablets (about 30%). Also, as shown in Fig. 9(a) the
values for their pore size (the average equivalent diameters
of the 1% largest pores) are much lower than those for the
two ore tablets. As discussed earlier, these results are in
full agreement with the densification results shown in Fig.
6. The average circle factor is shown in Fig. 9(b) and the
value of 0.52 for sinter tablet is higher than the values for
the ore tablets.
5.Conclusions
In iron ore sintering, the coalescing behaviour of the
molten mix formed in the flame front determines the size,
density and strength of the product sinter particles. Coalescence is a strong function of the volume of melt in the mix,
which is, in turn, dependent on the properties of iron ore in
the mix. Ores assimilate at different rates and more melt is
generated from reactive porous ores. As the molten mix is
a three-phase solid-melt-gas system, the level of unreacted
solids also has a large influence on the coalescence process.
Unless a certain level of material coalescence is achieved,
the obtained sinter product will not have the necessary size
or load-bearing strength requirements.
The aim of this study was to provide information on the
effect of solids level and melt properties on coalescence. In
a sinter plant all these parameters alter with compositional
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changes of blend. In this study, the influence of assimilation

on the properties of the melt and the three-phase system was
studied theoretically. Experimentally the molten mix was
simulated using pressed tablets heated in a Carbonlite CAF
furnace. Four iron oxide sources were considered: ground
dense and porous ores, ground plant sinter as well as chemical grade hematite. Sinter density was quantified using the
projected furnace sample images while optical microscopy
was used to quantify pore properties. These four iron oxide
sources were blended with other chemical grade reagents to
obtain the same final chemical composition before pressing
into cylinders.
The results show that the iron ore size and its initial
density govern the densification process in solid state sintering regime. Also, the effect of ore type on densification in
liquid phase sintering regime ranked as porous > dense >
regent and sinter in descending order. This is because the
porous ore assimilated more readily to form a more deformable system. The pores in the sintered tablet also had a
larger circle factor value indicating that at the micro-level
there was reduced resistance to bubble reshaping. Higher
product density was obtained for the tablet with fine sinter
and chemical hematite. The pore diameter and circle factor
values were higher for the fine sinter tablet, indicating that
the formed three-phase system was more fluid. The results
indicate that increasing the level of porous ore and return
fines in sinter mix facilitates coalescence in the flame front.

for the assistance with the particle size measurements, Ms

L. Matthews and Mr G. Penny for assisting with the microscopy studies.
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Acknowledgements
This work was carried out under an ARC Linkage grant
and the authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Australian Research Council, BHP Billiton and
BlueScope. They also would like to thank Mr M. Mason

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