Home News Research Publications Teaching Biography Contact

Research

My research focuses on process metallurgy; a discipline, which studies the refining of molten metals. Global megatrends, such as urbanisation and climate change, require extensive research on new types of steels and new methods to manufacture them. In the last few decades, great progress has been made in reducing the environmental load of steel per tons produced. This has been enabled to great extent by the use of modern computational methods, new measurement technology and new operating practices.

In my research work, I work mostly with chemical thermodynamics, chemical kinetics and transport phenomena in converter and ladle metallurgy of steelmaking. I conduct and instruct research with a boad range of methods, including mathematical modelling, physical modelling, computational thermodynamics modelling, computational fluid dynamics modelling, online measurements and high-temperature experiments.

The research is often made in cooperation with companies and foreign research institutes. So far, I have participated in joint research with Aalto University (Finland), VDEh Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH (Germany), Cybernetica AS (Norway), Idener (Spain), Indalgo Oy (Finland), Luxmet Oy (Finland), KU Leuven (Belgium), Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria), Northeastern University (China), RWTH Aachen University (Germany), SSAB Europe Oy (Finland), Outokumpu Stainless Oy (Finland, Sweden, USA), Pinja Oy (Finland), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (Finland), and Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik (Germany).

Current research topics

Own research activities:
On-going co-operative research:

Portfolio

Ironmaking and hot metal pretreatments Primary metallurgy Secondary metallurgy Casting

Current and past research projects

I have been involved in several projects with budgets ranging from few tens of thousands to several millions of euros. The projects are conducted in close co-operation with the steel industry. In the recent years, the international collaboration has intensified especially with German, Austrian, Belgian and Chinese partners.

Programme/project level tasks

Role
Duration Programme/project name Budget Funder
Member of the Steering Group,
Responsible for preparation of project plan and budgeting
2019– Alustatalous metallinjalostuksessa (AMET)
EUR 4.74 million Business Finland
Expert Member of the Steering Group
Responsible for preparation of project plan and budgeting
2018– Symbiosis of Steel Production and Nature (SYMMET)
EUR 6.9 million Business Finland
Member of the Management Group 2017– Genome of Steel profilation project NA Academy of Finland
Contact person, prepared WP6  2015–2019 Mathematics and Materials Science for Steel Production and Manufacturing (MIMESIS) EUR 2.1 million European Union
Major role in preparation of project plan and budgeting 2017–2018 Flexible and Adaptive Operations in Metal Production (FLEX) EUR 4.4 million Business Finland
Major role in preparation of project plan and budgeting 2014–2017 System Integrated Metals Processing (SIMP) EUR 24.2 million TEKES

Subproject/workpackage level tasks

Role
Topic(s) Duration Name Budget Programme Funder
Contact person EAF 2020– WP3 Metal recovery NA High potential inorganic side streams (MIMEPRO) Business Finland
WP leader, Researcher Continuous casting
EAF
HMD
2019– WP2 Phenomenon-based models and AI NA Alustatalous metallinjalostuksessa (AMET) Business Finland
Researcher, Secretary of the Management Group HMD 2018– TT1 + TT2 EUR 4.6 million Symbiosis of Steel Production and Nature (SYMMET) Business Finland
Researcher Continuous casting
Inclusions
2017– Process Metallurgy NA Genome of Steel profilation project Academy of Finland
Contact person Ladle 2015–2019 WP6 Optimal control of ladle stirring EUR 2.1 million Mathematics and Materials Science for Steel Production and Manufacturing (MIMESIS) European Union
Researcher HMD 2017–2018 Proactive Metal Production (PMP) NA Flexible and Adaptive Operations in Metal Production (FLEX) Business Finland
Researcher, Secretary of the Management Group AOD
BOF
CAS-OB
VTD
2017–2018 Adaptive Refining Metallurgy (ARM) EUR 1.2 million Flexible and Adaptive Operations in Metal Production (FLEX) Business Finland
Researcher, contact person AOD
Ladle
2014–2017 Sustainable Production of Ferroalloys (ProFe) NA
FiDiPro TEKES
Researcher, Secretary of the Management Group AOD
BOF
CAS-OB
VTD
2014–2017 Dynamic multiphysics modelling as guidance in progressing steel making (DYNAMO) EUR 7.5 million System Integrated Metals Processing (SIMP) TEKES
Researcher HMD 2016 Decision support of metallurgical processes (DECISIO) NA System Integrated Metals Processing (SIMP) TEKES
Researcher, Member of the Management Group AOD
CAS-OB
Inclusions
2012–2014 Advanced Melt Metallurgy (AMMe) EUR 6.5 million Energy and Lifecycle-efficient
Metal Processes (ELEMET)
TEKES

MIMESIS

MIMESIS project meeting at the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) in Berlin, Germany (June 2016).

Grants and scholarships

The following foundations or organisations are acknowledged for grants and scholarships:

Finnish Culture Foundation (2015)
Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion (2013 & 2015)
Finnish Science Foundation for Economics and Technology (2013)
Graduate School in Chemical Engineering (2012 & 2013)
Tauno Tönning Foundation (2015 & 2016)
Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation (2013 & 2016)
Walter Ahlström foundation (2019)