Attraction Force Estimations of Al2O3 Particle Agglomerations in the Melt

The influence of the van der Waals force, wettability of Al2O3 by liquid iron, and solid phase sintering on the Al2O3 agglomeration is studied. By using Fowkes module, the function of Hamaker constant of liquid iron changes with the surface tension of liquid iron, γFe (l), at temperature 1873 K is created. For the agglomeration behavior of Al2O3 in the deoxidation case, the difference between the cavity bridge force and van der Waals force is smaller than seven times. It means that even though van der Waals force is weaker, it still can attract the inclusions to some extent. In the reoxidation case, the influence of the cavity bridge force decreases, and becomes similar to that of the liquid-capillary force. In this case, both attraction forces play important roles in the Al2O3 cluster formation. Moreover, for the solid phase sintering, the apparent self-diffusion coefficient, Dv, of Al2O3 at temperature 1873 K in liquid Fe–10 mass%Ni alloy is found to have a value of 1.95 × 10−14 m2 s−1.