Structure and properties of iron-base melts

The study is devoted to investigation of density, surface tension, kinematic and dynamic viscosity and magnetic susceptibility of molten iron and iron alloys with carbon and nickel. The iron contained 0.04794 % of impurities (39 impurity elements were determined). Iron-carbon and iron-nickel alloys were prepared in laboratory vacuum furnace. Position of experimental points on the polytherm of density of liquid iron changes at 1690 °C and above. This is related to the transition from bcc-like short-range order structure to the statistical one. Concentration dependences of structure-sensitive properties of binary alloys are described by non-monotonic curves. Maxima and minima of these curves correlate well with phase diagrams of Fe-C and Fe-Ni systems. Possible phase diagrams of liquid Fe-C and Fe-Ni alloys containing regions of different short-range order structures are drawn using both the authors’ and other researchers’ data. The relation of technological parameters of steelmaking processes to the short-range order structure of metal melt is demonstrated.