How to Measure Phase Distribution and Degree of Sintering in Iron Ore Pellets
Abstract
Iron ore pellets are made from refined and ground ore that is balled into spheroids and then heat treated. Pellet properties are measured through standardized physical, chemical and metallurgical tests to guarantee a high quality end product. However to better understand the oxidation and sintering of iron ore pellets one has to study the microstructures. This paper provides a proof of concept that optical microscopy combined with image analysis methods can be used to quantitatively measure phase distribution and degree of sintering in iron ore pellets.
I. INTRODUCTION
The iron ore extracted from LKAB’s underground mines consists mainly of the mineral magnetite. Magnetite, as the name implies is the most magnetic of all the naturally occurring minerals and has a black color with a brownish tint. About 80% of LKAB production consists of iron ore pellets, which are are made from...