9th ECCC European Continuous Casting Conference – ECCC 2017

Fully coupled thermo-mechanical finite element models were developed, also casting and soft reduction tests were carried out in an industry casting machine, to investigate the formation mechanism of one kind of typical inter-dendritic crack around triangular zone in slab casting process, applying soft reduction technology. The effect of soft reduction amount distribution design combined with total soft reduction amount, upon aimed the soft reduction region, on the internal strain status were analysed. The relationship between the typical inter-dendritic crack and soft reduction condition was presented, which has been proved by the production practice. Considering the critical strain of internal crack formation, a critical tolerance for the soft reduction amount distribution and related casing parameters have been proposed for better contribution of soft reduction to the internal quality of slabs. The occurrence of the typical inter-dendritic crack around the triangular zone has been eliminated effectively through the application of proposed suggestions for continuous casting of pipeline steel in industrial practice.