• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.6-25
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• 2024

This study concentrated on a report on the results of smelting experiments conducted eight times by the Jungwon National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, put together the goals and results of the operation, and examined changes in the content of experiments and in the experimental results. First, changes related to operation, such as the ratio of raw materials to fuel and the presence or absence of additives, were reviewed depending on the operation goal. In addition, the results of metallurgical analysis of raw materials, formations, and byproducts were summarized and reviewed by comparing them with materials excavated from the ruins. The operation method varied up to the eighth smelting experiment in terms of iron ore roasting, additives, and raw material/fuel ratio. After reviewing the results again, pure iron with a low carbon content began to be confirmed through metallurgical analysis. As a result, it was confirmed that the charging ratio of raw materials and fuel plays an important role depending on the purpose of production. In addition, most of the products are gray cast iron, and it was deemed that this is due to changes in the internal structure of the pig iron while it was left in the furnace for a long time. The iron was an ingot that was in a molten state even though the carbon content did not reach 4.3%, where the process reaction takes place, and it was deemed to have been caused by excessive operating temperature. Based on the previously reviewed results and the structure and shape of the experimental furnace used in other ironmaking technology restoration experiments, this study finally attempted to restore the structure of an ancient iron smelting furnace, including the furnace's upper structure. By comprehensively referring to the remaining conditions of the excavated iron smelting furnace and the characteristics of the blow pipe, the form of the ancient iron smelting furnace was subdivided into six categories: furnace wall thickness, furnace height, blower height, blow pipe size, furnace inner wall shape, and top shape, and a restoration plan was proposed. To improve the problems of the restoration plan and the Jungwon National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage's experiments that have been conducted through continuous trial and error, an experiment that reflects changes in operating methods by lowering the furnace height and controlling the blowing volume is necessary.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.411-427
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• 2015

The purpose of the present study is to examine the objects excavated from the archaeological site of the Nogye Village in terms of their relationships with the iron production facilities such as 1ho smithing hearth and 2ho smelting furnace. 32 samples including slags, iron ores, and wall were analyzed to identify the mineralogical and chemical characterization. In addition, in the case of the 1ho smithing hearth slag, differing points of the cross-section were analyzed to examine its formation in depth. The analysis results suggest that the slags from the each site adjacent to the 1ho smithing hearth and 2ho furnace are related to smithing and smelting process respectively. Furthermore, it is possible to draw some conclusions that the aspects of the increased contents of nonferrous elements such as CaO in the slags in comparison with those of the iron ores are due to various factors such as charcoal ash and analytical reasons rather than an addition of CaO as flux.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.75-83
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• 2017

This study produced smelting slag through the reproduction of an ancient iron manufacturing technique, with the aim of facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the process by analyzing the slag components. The research suggests an interpretation method using the ratio of the subcomponents relative to the main slag components as an alternative to existing methods. We investigated the component source within the smelting furnace from which the slag is derived by developing an understanding of the tendency between slags. Based on bivariate graph and triangular coordinate data analysis, it was found that a slag can be categorized according to its components. The groups were identified as the ore slag group(centered on the ore), and the clay slag group(centered on clay and granite soil). This research determined that it is possible to estimate the components derived from the slag, depending on which group they belong to or resemble, as shown in Figure 4~7. It was found that a comprehensive understanding of the ratio between the components was more accurate than a simple analysis of the contents, for the interpretation of ancient iron manufacturing processes. This is based on the fact that a higher ratio of $TiO_2$ was detected by the components analysis, and an analysis of all the slag showed that the value of $CaO/SiO_2$ ratio was lower than 0.4, which corresponds to the reproduction experiment condition in which flux was not used.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.199-205
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• 2004

$SiO_2$ and CaO are added to decrease the smelting temperature in the reduction-smelting method for manganese nodule processing. These elements are components of the manganese nodules and might be very important controlling factors in the processing due to the locally variable content. The 707 chemical data of manganese nodules acquired from 1994 to 2001 in KODOS(Korea Deep Ocean Survey) area were used for the hierarchical cluster analysis. The chemical data were classified by the morphological types, and the averages of the chemical data for each station were classified by the facies groups and the localities. All data are plotted on the $SiO_2-CaO-MnO$ phase diagram at $1773^{\circ}K$ to compare with the best compositional area in the nodule smelting. Variations and distributions of $SiO_2$ and CaO in KODOS nodules were also reviewed. The mineral phases assigned by the cluster analysis are CFA(Carbonate Fluorapatite), Fe-oxide, Al-silicate, and Mn-oxide. MnO contents are generally higher than $SiO_2$ contents in most of the morphological types except for the Is- and It-type. The Dt- and Tt-type show wider range and the E-types show high anomaly in their CaO contents. The stations which belong to facies group A and B show generally higher MnO contents than $SiO_2$ contents, however, the stations of facies group C and D show wide range in their MnO and $SiO_2$ contents. It seems to be very important to control the $SiO_2$ contents in the processing because of the wide range in the northern area. The additions of approximately 10 wt.% CaO and 10 wt.% $SiO_2$ are recommended for the northern area, whereas, the additions of approximately 10 wt.% CaO and 20 wt.% $SiO_2$ are recommended for the southern area.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2018

This study replicated traditional smelting methods to produce iron blooms from sand iron. The metallurgical properties of the slag and the iron blooms were analyzed. The sand iron materials used in the smelting experiments, which were based on ancient documents, were collected from Gyeong-Ju and Pohang. Analysis by WD-XRF and XRD showed that Gyeong-Ju's sand iron contains a high-titanium, with magnetite, and Pohang's sand iron contains a low-titanium, which magnetite and ilmenite were mixed. Analysis of the slag with XRD, and the micro-structure with metal microscopes and SEM-EDS, confirmed that the major compounds in the slag of the Gyeong-Ju's sand iron were fayalite and $w\ddot{u}stite$, and those in the slag of the Pohang's sand iron were titanomagnetite and fayalite. The differences in the main constituents were confirmed according to the Ti quantity. Finally, we observed the microstructures of the iron blooms. In the case of the iron bloom produced from Gyeong-Ju's sand iron, the outside was found to be dominantly a pearlite of eutectoid steel, while the inside was a hypo-eutectoid steel where ferrite and pearlite were mixed together. While, the major component of the iron bloom produced from Pohang's sand iron was ferrite, which is almost like pure iron. However, there were many impurities inside the iron blooms. Therefore, this experiment confirmed that making ironware required a process that involved removing internal impurities, refining, and welding. It will be an important data to identify the characteristics of iron by-products and the site through traditional iron-making experiments under various conditions.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.138-153
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• 2015

A Jincheon Seokjangri B23 furnace was reconstructed and iron smelting experiment was performed to investigate an ancient Baekjae iron production process. The work mainly described in this paper is the $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ experiments among the several experiments carried out at Jungwon National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage. Iron ore(magnetite) and oak charcoal were used as a source and a foot bellow was used for air supply. Common results of the experiments are masses of iron, slag and charcoal formed in the furnace. Most iron lumps were formed nearby the tuyere rather than the area of tapping hole. Metallographic and chemical analysis shows that the iron lumps can be used for either forge or cast depending on their carbon content. Low Fe content and glassy texture of the inner slags suggest that the operation environment was quite reducing. Based on the results of the iron smelting experiments, measurements and analysis, various information was obtained regarding physical-chemical and metallurgical processes of the ancient iron smelting process. It is firmly believed that its undisclosed contents can be revealed more in depth with continual reconstitution experiments.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.475-499
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• 2023

To infer the provenance of raw iron materials utilized in iron production at the archaeological sites in Gyeongsang province, petrographic and geochemical analyses were conducted for smelting samples and major iron ores sourced from ore deposits. The smelting samples excavated from various iron archaeological sites were classified into different types according to their refining processes, such as iron bloom, iron bloom slag, pig iron, pig iron slag, forging iron flake, smithery iron, iron flake, and arrowhead. These samples exhibited discernable differences in their mineralogical components and texture. The enrichments of major elements such as aluminum and calcium in silicate minerals of the residual slags and the high contents of trace elements such as nickel and copper in some iron-making relics reflect the characteristics of raw iron ores, and thus can be regarded as potential indicators for inferring the provenance of source materials. In particular, the compositional ranges of Pb-Sr isotope ratios for the iron smelting samples were classified into three categories: 1) those exhibiting similar ratios to those of the raw iron ores, 2) those enriched in strontium isotope ratio, and 3) those enriched in both lead and strontium isotope ratios. The observed distinct Pb-Sr isotope characteristics in the iron smelting samples suggest the potential contribution of specific additives being introduced during the high-temperature refining process. These results provide a new perspective on the interpretation of the provenance study of the iron archaeological samples in Gyeongsang province, particularly in terms of the potential contribution of additives on the refining process.

• 한국문화재보존과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.163-164
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.193-193
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• 2006

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.87-95
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• 2019

This study investigated the effect of process variables for smelting of recovery of valuable metal in the sludge generated from PCB. The moisture and organics in the sludge was removed by preteatment process. The phase equilibria and slag system was selected by thermodynamic phase calculation program and the process variable of pyro-metallurgical process such as reductant. Smelting temperature and holding time for a recovery of valuable metal was studied.