Wetting of Refractory Ceramics with High-Manganese and Structural Steel and Description of Interfacial Interaction

This work aims to describe the interfacial interaction at the interface between refractory material and high-manganese (XT 720) and structural (11 523) steel using a wetting test up to 1600 °C. The contact angles were determined through the sessile drop method, and the results were put into context through degradation testing and the characterization of the interfacial interface by Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analyses, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The lowest resistance to molten steel was observed for chamotte materials, while the highest was observed for materials based on electrofused corundum. High-manganese steel was strongly erosive to the materials tested, with the wetting angle decreasing significantly from 10 to 103° with decreasing Al2O3 content (an increase of 2.4 to 59.4% corundum) in the refractories. Structural steel showed wetting angles from 103 to 127° for identical refractories. These results were consistent with the average erosion depth for Mn steel (0.2–7.8 mm) and structural steel (0–2.4 mm).