Abstract: Water content is an important factor which affects the granulation of a mixture and sintering.Research results show that with the water content for granulation increasing,the proportion of fine particles reduces in the granulated mixture,the mean size increases,and the permeability rapidly improves firstly,but then mildly changes even goes down.The point of water content at which the permeability grows smoothly can be used as a criterion of suitable values for granulation,and it is found that the sintering speed reaches maximum at the suitable water content for granulation.The mixture can be divided into two parts by the mathematical method of sieving,one is-0.5 mm as adhering fine powders,the other is +0.5 mm as nucleus particles,and the ratio of nucleus particles X_+0.5 was measured.The suitable water content can be predicted based on the model of W=X_+0.5 W_c+0.72(1-X_+0.5)W_p,in which the maximum capillary water content of adhering fine powders W_p is measured by a saturated water absorption method and the preserved water content of nucleus particles W_c is measured by a centrifugal method.The accuracy of prediction reaches 93.3% when the absolute error of the suitable water content for granulation is ±0.3%,which can satisfy the requirement of predicting accuracy.