The prediction of longitudinal cracking during slab casting

A collaborative study has been carried out between British Steel, Teesside Technology Centre, Centre de Recherches Metallurgiques (CRM), Belgium, and the National Physical Laboratory, London, on mould powder performance and its effect on longitudinal cracking of slabs. One of the objectives was to predict the occurrence of longitudinal facial cracking by processing of plant data and thermocouple signals from an instrumented mould. A description of software developed by British Steel to achieve this is given, together with initial calibration results using trial data from the plate grade slab casters at Scunthorpe and Teesside Works and the strip grade slab easter at Sidmar Works, Belgium.