Zicheng Xin, Jiangshan Zhang, Qing Liu
Ladle furnace (LF) refining is one of the most widely used secondary refining processes for producing clean steel and constitutes a key process in the steelmaking–continuous casting section. The properties of slag play a decisive role in determining molten steel quality and refining efficiency. In this study, based on the composition of refining slag from a steelmaking plant in China, the properties of a CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3 slag system were investigated with respect to five aspects, the liquid phase region, sulphide capacity, melting properties, slag viscosity, and mineralogical phase precipitation, at varying temperatures, basicity, w(MgO) and w(Al2O3) using FactSage and the KTH model. Analysis of the slag properties indicates that the CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3 slag system performs better when basicity ranges from 3 to 4, w(MgO) is between 6% and 8%, and w(Al2O3) is 15%–25%. These findings provide theoretical support and guidance for optimizing the refining slag system in plant trials.