Heat transfer behavior and formation mechanism of stainless steel cladding carbon steel plate during horizontal continuous liquid-solid composite casting

Stainless steel/carbon steel laminated composites have a wide application demand, nevertheless, traditional preparation methods are still insufficient in terms of performance and efficiency. In this paper, a novel technique and new equipment of horizontal continuous liquid-solid composite casting was developed. The heat transfer behavior during the continuous composite casting process was investigated by a verified 3D model, and the influences of processing parameters on the microstructure and properties were analyzed via experiments. Heat transfer strongly affects the bonding and solidification process, initial inverse solidification, remelting, inverse and forward solidification of the cladding layer occur successively, resulting in a strong metallurgical bonding interface and a high-quality cladding layer. The maximum temperature of the substrate surface and the cooling rate of the cladding layer increase with increasing melt temperature and inverse solidification mold exit temperature. Additionally, an increased continuous casting speed reduces the maximum temperature and improves the cooling rate. Finally, stainless steel cladding carbon steel plates with average dimension error less than 3.4 % were successfully fabricated, and had an excellent interfacial shear strength of 412 MPa and an ultimate tensile strength of 577 MPa due to the formation of carbides and elimination of the decarburization layer and oxides at the interface.