Influence of process parameters on grain structure of round billet in vertical continuous casting

Abstract

The Zhong Yuan Special Steel (ZYSS) installed a vertical caster for the production of special steel. This vertical caster differs from the vertically curved caster, exhibiting unique inclusion behavior, stress distribution, and solidification process. Based on ZYSS’s continuous casting process parameters and CAFE nucleation parameters, the chip-moving boundary method was adopted to conduct a numerical simulation of the round billet. The superheat and cooling intensity are key process parameters of continuous casting. A gradual coarsening of the macrostructure can be observed with an increase in the superheat of the liquid steel. When the superheat increases from 30°C to 50°C, the center equiaxed crystal region decreases from 63,56 % to 42,25 %. A lower cooling intensity is beneficial for improving equiaxed crystallization.

Keywords

• 42CrMo steel
• continuous casting
• round billet
• temperature field
• grain structure