Analysis and Application of Soft Reduction Amount for Bloom Continuous Casting Process

• Published in: ISIJ International Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 504 - 510
• Main Authors: Ji, Cheng, Luo, Sen, Zhu, Miaoyong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan 01.01.2014; Iron and Steel Institute of Japan
• Subjects: Applied sciences; bloom continuous casting; Exact sciences and technology; high carbon alloy steel; macro-segregation; Metals. Metallurgy; reduction amount; soft reduction; solidification shrinkage; High carbon steel; Segregation; soft reduction; Continuous casting; reduction amount; Foundry; Shrinkage; Solidification; bloom continuous casting; High alloy steel; Bloom; high carbon alloy steel; solidification shrinkage; Carbon steel; Microstructure; Application; macro-segregation
• ISSN: 0915-1559; 1347-5460
• DOI: 10.2355/isijinternational.54.504

Based on the principle of solidification shrinkage compensation, a soft reduction amount calculation method was derived for bloom continuous casting process, and the bearing steel GCr15 was chosen as specific research steel to describe calculation process in detail. A two-dimensional heat transfer model was built to predict the solidification process of bloom, and the material properties of GCr15 were derived by weighted averaging of the phase fractions. The predicted temperature and shell thickness were verified by a thermal infrared camera and nail shooting results, respectively. The soft reduction amount of typical high carbon alloy steel blooms were calculated and discussed. The plant results showed that after the application of soft reduction to the bloom, centerline segregation and “V” type segregation were improved significantly. The carbon and sulfur ratios of the bloom centerline were reduced from 1.39 to 1.09 and 2.14 to 1.29, respectively.