Formation of internal cracks during soft reduction in rectangular bloom continuous casting

To investigate the formation of internal cracks in GCr15 bearing steels during the soft reduction process in rectangular bloom continuous casting, fully coupled thermomechanical finite element models were developed using the commercial software MSC.MARC, and microstructures and fractographs were also observed. With the finite element models, the contours of temperature, equivalent plastic strain, and equivalent von Mises stress were simulated. It is observed that the fracture surfaces of internal cracks are covered by cleavage or quasi-cleavage facets. The region of internal cracks in the intergranular brittle fracture mode is in the mushy zone between the zero ductility temperature (ZDT) and the zero strength temperature (ZST). The simulated equivalent plastic strain in the crack region is 2.34%–2.45%, which is larger than the critical strain (0.4%–1.5%), and the equivalent von Mises stress is 1.84–5.05 MPa, which is within the range of critical stress (3.9–7.2 MPa), thus resulting in the occurrence of internal cracks. Reducing the soft reduction amount from 3 to 2 mm can lower the stress under the critical value.