Campus News ----------------------------------------------------------------------
By Richard Hatfield richardb @umr.ed u
Gelling lil e sleel oul: j effrey D. SlII ilh (Iefl) and Kenr D. Peaslee some clogged no::.::.les. Coffee drin kers ca n apprec iate th e dilemm a faced by UM R researchers workin g to uncl og an age-old problem in the steel industry. In a three-year project sponsored by th e Ameri ca n Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and th e U.S. Departm ent o f Energy (DOE), UMR researchers are trying to keep steel-prod uc ing nozzles clean and more prod ucti ve for th e steel industry in the 2 1st century. "One steel co mpany estim ated that do ublin g its nozzle I i Fe co uld reduce producti on cos ts by 25 cents fo r every ton o f steel cas t - nea rl y $ 1 mi llion a year in savings," says Jeffrey D. Smith , MS CerE ' 9 1, PhD CerE' 93, a resea rch assistant professor of ce rami c enginee ring at UMR and co-principal in ves ti gator fo r th e project. The goa l of the projec t, says Sm ith , " is to make it possible fo r th e steel industry to produ ce bett er qua lity steel
more eco nomi call y, whil e reducin g total energy co nsumpti on." Approx imately 90 percent of all the steel made in the United States is continuously cast - a process in which liquid steel at 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit is fed 24 hours a day throu gh small nozzles and into th e top of water-cooled molds. The steel solidi fies in the mold and is contin uously extracted from th e bottom of the mold. "When materi al builds up on the inside of the nozzle, it slows down the production process until it eventu all y forces th e plant to stop the operati on and replace the damaged nozzle," says Kent D. Peaslee, PhD MetE ' 94, an ass istant pro fessor of metallurgical engineering at UMR and Smith's co-investi gator. "It is simil ar to what happens to coffee makers when minerals in the water build up and wilh eventu all y c log the holes." The steel industry adds aluminum to improve the properties and produce hi gher qu ality steels, Peaslee says. "But some of th e al uminum reacts to fo rm co mpound s th at are attracted to the nozzle materi al where they acc umulate, di sturbing th e fl ow. Our obj ecti ve is to di scover co mbin at ions of liquid steel treatments, nozzle materials, and liquid flow patterns that will preven t this problem from occurring." The UMR researchers are studyi ng samples of clogged nozzles from plants across the U.S. "We wi ll then reproduce the sa me types of buil dups in our labs before workin g to find different materials and steel treatments that stop the clogg ing from taking place," Smith says. "Once we are successfu l, we plan on runni ng plant trials in th e steel industry, using the informati on we have ga ined from the research."
Spunky spelunkers celebrate 50 years of cave-crawling An organization that prides itself for being in the dark most of the time decided to spend a moment in the limelight in September, as the MSM Spelunkers Club celebrated 50 years of exploring the Rolla area's caves. caverns. sinkholes and other natural wonders. The event was held in the Mill Creek area of the Mark Twain N,;tional Forest near Newburg, Mo. As part of the 50-year celebration, the UMR club hosted the fall Mississippi Valley Ozark Region (with caving enthusiasts from eight states) and the National Speleological Society spelunker club event. If you missed the event, read all about it at the club's Web site: www.umr.edu/-spelunk.
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MSM-UM R ALUMNUS I Wimer 1998
