Numerical simulation on the heating of blast furnace (BF) slag with high TiO₂ under microwave irradiation

In the process of heating BF slag with high TiO₂ to induce crack by microwave irradiation,thermal runaway occurred locally. In order to explore the reason of thermal runaway, softwares of FEMAP and wave-jω were used to calculate the 3D microwave field and thermal distribution in the sample and space around under multi-mode microwave oven. Furthermore, the ability of CaTiO₃ phase and general BF slag to absorb microwave energy was compared. The calculation results show that almost all microwave energy is focused on the BF slag instead of the space around. In addition, the microwave field distribution in the BF slag sample is not uniform, and the CaTiO₃ phase in the slag is heated more effectively than other mineral phases under microwave irradiation. The two factors above are the reasons for thermal runaway occurred in the BF slag bearing high TiO₂ irradiated under microwave field.