Analysis and application of soft reduction amount for bloom continuous casting process

Abstract

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. © 2014 ISIJ.