From Measurement Discrepancy to Predictive Accuracy: Establishing Reliable Slag Thermal Conductivity
Context
The global metals industry must simultaneously meet rising metal demand and reduce its CO2 emissions, while declining ore grades introduce greater process variability. Electric furnaces can address both challenges by operating on renewable electricity with variable feedstocks. Their energy efficiency depends on heat loss through the molten slag layer, governed by the slag thermal conductivity, a key input to furnace design models. Yet reported thermal conductivity values from the transient hot-wire and laser-flash methods, the two techniques most widely used in literature, disagree by up to a factor of three, with no consensus on the temperature dependence of this property.
Research objectives
The main objective of this work is to establish reliable molten slag thermal conductivity. This will be achieved through:
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The construction of a high temperature experimental set-up
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Experimental data collection on synthetic slags with varying oxide compositions
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The construction of a thermal conductivity model based on slag composition/slag molecular structure
Researchers