Sintering characteristics of fluxes and their structure optimization

Sintering characteristics of common fluxes and sintering blending ores, such as mineralization capacity, liquid generation capacity, consolidation strength, were examined to master the behavior and effect of fluxes in sintering. Based on fundamental studies, sinter pot tests were carried out to obtain the principles of optimizing the sinter flux structure. The results showed that strong mineralization capacity, liquid phase generation capacity, and consolidation strength were obtained as sintering blending ores combined with the calcareous flux, while relatively poor sintering characteristics were obtained as sintering blending ores combined with the magnesian flux. High reactive quicklime should be used as much as possible in the sintering mixture. It reached better sintering results while quicklime was used instead of limestone and its appropriate proportion in the sintering mixture was around 4wt%. On the premise of ensuring the MgO content, the dolomite amount should be decreased, and the substitution of quicklime for dolomite caused better sintering results. The granularity of serpentine should be refined with a proper size smaller than 2 mm. The application of the divided addition method brought the best sintering performance with 30wt% of quicklime and 70wt% of fuel.