Determination of rolling load in liquid core reduction of continuously cast thin steel slab

Abstract

An analytical approach is proposed to determine the rolling load and stresses in the process of liquid core reduction of a continuously cast thin steel slab in a curved type machine. The analysis is based on considering the rolling load to be concentrated at the slab solid edges, whereas the width of the slab solidified shell is subjected to bending. Analytical expressions are obtained for the rolling load and the stresses acting on the solidified slab shell during liquid core reduction. The analysis has been applied to an industrial case of plain low carbon steel, to investigate the effect of the reduction pattern imposed by the roll segments on the rolling load and stresses in the slab solidified shell. The results obtained show that distributing the reduction pattern among several roll segments reduces the rolling load, compared with the case of concentrating the reduction in one single segment. The temperature rise owing to liquid core reduction is shown to be negligible. The bending stresses along the slab solidified shell have smaller values than the compressive stresses at the slab edges.