Quantitative Characterization of the Blast Furnace Pellet Phases with Different Degrees of Reduction

The present work proposes a methodology for the quantitative microstructural characterization of blast furnace pellets. Samples with different degrees of reduction, about 14mm in diameter were embedded in epoxy resin, grounded and polished. For each polished section, images were acquired using optical microscope with objective lens of 100x. The images were analyzed one by one through the free ImageJ software, where the area fractions of each phase including pores were measured. Results of hematite, magnetite and wustite fractions were obtained in commercial pellets with different degrees of reduction due to different thermal cycles and atmospheres to which they were subjected.