Thermo-Mechanical Behavior of the Continuous Casting Bloom in the Heavy Reduction Process

A two-stage sequential heavy reduction ( HR) method, in which the reduction amount was increased both before and after the solidification end, is presented to simultaneously improve the homogeneity and compactness of the continuous casting bloom. With bearing steel GCr15 chosen as the specific research steel, a three-dimensional thermal-mechanical finite element model was developed to simulate and analyze the thermal and mechanical behaviors of the continuous casting bloom during the HR process. In order to ensure the accuracy of the simulation, the constitutive model parameters were derived from the experimental results. The predicted temperature distribution and shell thickness were verified using a thermal infrared camera and nail shooting results, respectively. The real measured relationship between the HR pressure and amount were applied to verify the mechanical model. The explorative application results showed that the quality of the bloom center and compactness of rolled bars have both been significantly improved after the HR was applied.