Investigating the Effect of the Iron Ore Pellet Addition on the Interaction Among Blast Furnace Burden in the Cohesive Zone

The efficient operation of a blast furnace requires burden materials with high softening temperatures and a narrow softening–melting range. This leads to the formation of a thinner cohesive zone in the lower part of the furnace, which improves permeability. In this study, softening–melting tests were conducted on pellets with different levels of basicity, combined with other iron-bearing materials such as iron ore and sinter. The results demonstrated an enhancement in the softening–melting properties of all iron-bearing materials when used as integrated burdens. This improvement can be attributed to the interaction among the ferrous burden materials at high temperatures. Furthermore, it was observed that the degree of interaction among ferrous burden increases as the proportion of pellets in the burden is increased up to 30%, replacing some of the iron ore. This suggests that the inclusion of pellets contributes to the overall improvement in the softening–melting behavior of the integrated burden.