Development of Analysis Technique for Solidification and Macrosegregation of Carbon Steel Using Sand Casting Experiments
摘要
Macrosegregation in ingots leads to increased production costs, etc. The development of techniques to reduce macrosegregation in the casting process will be beneficial from the viewpoint of operational improvement. If the solidification process and macrosegregation formation process of a large ingot can be evaluated in a small experiment, it is expected to be an effective experimental technique that will lead to obtaining operation improvement guidelines for actual ingot. In this study, we attempted to develop a sand casting experiment technique that could analyze the solidification process and macrosegregation of carbon steel. It was able to reproduce the solidification time, macrostructure and macrosegregation of carbon of the large ingot (1 ton or several tons in size) using about 500 kg of molten steel. Temperatures at the molten surface and at the bottom of the ingot during the solidification process were successfully measured. This experimental technique was expected to be utilized as a compact and simple method to evaluate the operation guidelines of the actual ingot, since the mold shape, the riser shape, molten surface heat retaining conditions and the molten steel composition could be easily changed.