Effect of magnesia on the compressive strength of pellets

The compressive strength of MgO-fluxed pellets was investigated before and after they were reduced. The porosity and pore size of green pellets, product pellets, and reduced pellets were analyzed to clarify how MgO affects the strength of the pellets. Experimental results show that when the MgO-bearing flux content in the pellets increases from 0.0wt% to 2.0wt%, the compressive strength of the pellets at ambient temperature decreases, but the compressive strength of the pellets after reduction increases. Therefore, the compressive strength of the pellets after reduction exhibits no certain positive correlation with that before reduction. The porosity and pore size of all the pellets (with different MgO contents) increase when the pellets are reduced. However, the increase in porosity of the MgO-fluxed pellets is relatively smaller than that of the traditional non-MgO-fluxed pellets, and the pore size range of the MgO-fluxed pellets is relatively narrower. The reduction swelling index (RSI) is a key factor for governing the compressive strength of the reduced pellets. An approximately reversed linear relation can be concluded that the lower the RSI, the greater the compressive strength of the reduced pellets is.