Numerical simulation of early stages of oxide formation in molten aluminium–magnesium alloys in a reverberatory furnace

A significant amount of aluminium is processed by melting aluminium scrap that contains small amounts of magnesium. A major drawback of aluminium production in secondary melt furnaces is the formation of dross or aluminium oxide by the oxidation of the molten metal. Since aluminium scrap forms a major source of the metal in secondary aluminium processing, the presence of alloying elements plays a key role in the oxidation process. Here, we consider the early stage of oxidation of an Al–Mg alloy during which primarily the oxidation of magnesium to its oxide occurs. Our model simulates the process in an aluminium melting furnace and considers metal oxidation to be diffusion limited. The phenomenon is assumed to be one-dimensional and the reaction of Al/Mg with O2 to be infinitely fast. We are able to obtain a closed form analytical solution of the evaporation rate and the amount of oxide that is formed. We find that the evaporation of the metal vapour and its oxidation depend on the furnace size, melt composition, melt temperature, gas temperature and oxygen concentration in the gas. Oxide formation decreases with increasing furnace height and with decreasing oxygen concentration and melt temperature. Dross formation is weakly dependent on the ambient temperature and alloy composition. The results indicate that there are essentially two parameters, namely, the equivalence ratio of the fuel–air mixture (which controls the ambient oxygen concentration) and the melt temperature that can be manipulated to influence oxide formation in practical furnaces.