Effect of superheat on quality of central equiaxed grain zone of continuously cast bearing steel billet based on two-dimensional segregation ratio

The quality of central equiaxed grain zone （CEGZ） of GCr15 bearing steel billets was investigated at different superheats （20, 25 and 35 ℃ by experimental observations and a finite element model in order to optimize superheat in continuous casting process. Several GCrl5 billets were collected from the continuous casting shop, and the same CEGZ was chosen for comparison of internal quality of GCrl5 billets. Considering the limitation of segregation index at some points, two- dimensional segregation ratio in CEGZ was introduced. Firstly, the segregation ratio and the area of center large dark points in CEGZ obtain the minimum at 25 ℃ superheat, which indicates that the quality of CEGZ at 25 ~C superheat is improved compared with those at 20 and 35 ℃ superheats for corresponding continuously cast billets. The highest superheat and the lowest superheat are not beneficial for improving the central zone quality in the billets. Secondly, the quality of CEGZ of GCr15 billets increases with a decrease in the secondary dendrite arm spacing of CEGZ. Finally, according to the established finite element model, it is deduced that the secondary dendrite arm spacing of CEGZ is closely related to its later solidifica- tion time at solid fraction of 0.5-1.0, and the former will be decreased when decreasing the latter.

Prediction of maximum carbon element content in continuous casting billets of 82B cord steel based on statistics of extreme values method

The research of carbon content along the casting direction of 82B cord steel billets is of great significance for improvingthe quality of cord products from subsequent processing.However,the traditional segregation and billets quality evaluationmethods have certain limitations,such as sampling length and analysis area.which affect the accuracy of quality judgment.Thus.the statistics of extreme values(SEV)was introduced to predict the maximum value of carbon element contentalong the casting direction,which can quantitatively characterize the segregation degree.The size of the selected billet is150 mm×150 mm,and the sampling location is the centerline of the billet.The experiment was conducted by consideringthe effect of cooling intensity and casting speed on the maximum value of carbon element content.Firstly,the calculationresults show that the SEN method can predict the maximum value of carbon element content along the casting directionof 82B cord steel,and the SEV method is proved to be effective by analyzing the carbon distribution and fluctuation in billets.To some extent,the SEV method can break the limitations of the sampling length and analysis area by predicting themaximum value of carbon element on a larger range of continuous casting billets with few samples.During the continuouscasting process the increase in cooling intensity makes the surface shrinking rate increase,which can slow down the flowof solute-enriched liquid to the center,and the center segregation can be reduced.On the other hand,the function area ofthe final electromagnetic stirring can be expanded with the increase in the casting speed,which can reduce the concentration of carbon element in the center of the billets and reduce the maximum value of carbon element content.Ilt can providea new theoretical reference for the quantitative calculation of carbon content in continuous casting billets and the qualityevaluation of continuous casting billcts.