Effects of pressure on the kinetics of manganese evaporation from the OT4 alloy

In the paper, results of the study on manganese evaporation from the OT4 alloy are presented. In the experiments, the effects of pressure on the manganese evaporation kinetics and the stages that limit the evaporation rate were investigated. It was demonstrated that the rate of manganese evaporation from the alloy increased with pressure reduction in the system. When the pressure decreases from 1000 Pa to 10 Pa, the value of overall mass transfer k_Mn increases from 3.9·10^-6 ms^-1 to 208.4·10^-6 ms^-1. At the same time, the manganese fraction in the alloy decreased from 1.49% mass to 0.045% mass. Within the whole pressure range, the analysed evaporation process is diffusion-controlled. For pressures above 50 Pa, the determining stage is transfer in the gaseous phase, while for pressures below 50 Pa, it is transfer in the liquid phase.