Estimation of primary dendrite arm spacings in continuous casting products

Abstract

The proportion of steels produced by continuous casting has grown drastically during the last two decades, increasing to such an extent that in some countries, several grades of steel are exclusively made by this process. Many investigations recognized the significant influence of the solidification structure on the quality of cast products, and pointed out the importance of the development of appropriate tools to predict the microstructure as a function of thermal and physical parameters. The estimation of secondary dendrite arm spacings in continuously cast steel products has received some attention. However, very little effort has been focused on the prediction of primary dendrite arm spacings, to the best of the authors` knowledge. The main objective of this study is to develop simple expressions to estimate the variation of primary dendrite arm spacings through the section of continuous casting steel products.