Technical Market Support » Metallurgical Coal
Traditional plasticity measurements for coal have a number of limitations associated with the reproducibility of the tests and their use in predicting coking behaviour. This report reviews alternative rheological methods for characterising the plastic behaviour of coking coals. It reviews the application of more fundamental rheological measurements to the coal system as well as reviewing applications of rheology to other physical systems. These systems may act as potential models for the application of fundamental rheological measurements to cokemaking.
The systems considered were polymer melts, coal ash melts, lava, bread making and ice cream.
These systems were chosen because they exhibit some physically equivalent processes to the processes occurring during cokemaking, eg, the generation of bubbles within a softened system that then resolidifies.
A number of recommendations were made:
- the steady and oscillatory shear squeeze flow techniques be further investigated to determine if the measured rheology characteristics are related to transformations within the coke oven and the characteristics of resultant coke.
- modification of Gieseler plastometers for more fundamental rheology measurements not be attempted.