Behavior of oxides in the liquid stainless steel

For a super clean steel, the oxygen content should be restricted to a very low level, and controlled during the melt state. The oxide behavior in an Al killed stainless steel melt were observed by analysing the forces exerted. New parameter, homogenization number (H number), was introduced to generalize the forces. Quantitative analysis of the removal of oxides was conducted, and a homogenization number was used to predict whether the oxides would be separated from the melt or mixed with the melt. It was also shown that the H number could possibly be used to estimate the capacity of oxide-absorption at the top slag.