Tomasz Sak, Józef Czernecki, Piotr Madej, Grzegorz Krawiec, Stanisław Pietrzyk, Łukasz Kortyka
The slag from flash smelting of the copper concentrates from HM Głogów is subjected to decoppering
process in the electric furnace in order to obtain the Cu-Pb-Fe alloy.
The composition of the examined alloys was similar to those produced during decoppering process
in an industrial electric furnace. The measurements were performed for the alloys of a constant Cu
content XCu = 0.9; 0.8 and 0.7 and the corresponding Pb ad Fe content, so that XPb + XFe = 0.1; 0.2
and 0.3. The density of the alloys was determined using the dilatometric method, where the length
of the sample increased with temperature. The surface tension was determined using the sessile
drop technique, where the X-ray images were processed with a computer programs in order to determine
the coordinates of the points located on the surface of the cross-section of the drop. The
surface tension was determined based on the drop shape using the Laplace equation. The surface
tension was also calculated using the Butler model, and the results were compared to the experimental
data.
The presented results provide information on the density and surface tension of the Cu-Pb-Fe alloys
and can be useful during the modeling of the slag decoppering process in the electric furnace.