Shear-thinning behavior of the CaO-SiO₂-CaF₂-Si₃N₄ system mold flux and its practical application

Satisfying the mold-flux performance requirements for high-speed continuous casting necessitates the development of a new non-Newtonian-fluid mold flux with shear-thinning behavior, i.e., a mold flux whose viscosity is relatively high under lower shear rates and relatively low under higher shear rates. In this work, a mold flux that exhibits shear-thinning behavior was developed by adding different amounts of Si₃N₄ to the CaO-SiO₂-CaF₂ mold flux. The shear-thinning behavior was investigated using a rotational viscometer. In addition, the microstructure of the newly prepared slags was studied by high-temperature Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results showed that the mechanism of shear-thinning was attributable to a temporary viscosity loss caused by the one-way shear stress, whereas the corresponding magnitude of shear-thinning was closely related to the degree of polymerization (DP). Finally, the non-Newtonian fluid mold flux was used for laboratory casting tests, which revealed that the mold flux could reduce slag entrapment and positively affect the continuous casting optimization.