Detection of Non-metallic Inclusions in Centrifugal Continuous Casting Steel Billets

In the current study, automated particle analysis was employed to detect non-metallic inclusions in steel during a centrifugal continuous casting process of a high-strength low alloy steel. The morphology, composition, size, area fraction, amount, and spatial distribution of inclusions in steel were obtained. Etching experiment was performed to reveal the dendrite structure of the billet and to discuss the effect of centrifugal force on the distribution of oxide inclusions in the final solidified steel by comparing the solidification velocity with the critical velocity reported in literature. It was found that the amount of inclusions was highest in samples from the tundish (~250 per mm²), followed by samples from the mold (~200 per mm²), and lowest in billet samples (~86 per mm²). In all samples, over 90 pct of the inclusions were smaller than 2μm. In steel billets, the content of oxides, dual-phase oxide–sulfides, and sulfides in inclusions were found to be 10, 30, and 60 pct, respectively. The dual-phase inclusions were oxides with sulfides precipitated on the outer surface. Oxide inclusions consisted of high Al₂O₃ and high MnO which were solid at the molten steel temperature, implying that the calcium treatment was insufficient. Small oxide inclusions very uniformly distributed on the cross section of the billet, while there were more sulfide inclusions showing a banded structure at the outside 25 mm layer of the billet. The calculated solidification velocity was higher than the upper limit at which inclusions were entrapped by the solidifying front, revealing that for oxide inclusions smaller than 8μm in this study, the centrifugal force had little influence on its final distribution in billets. Instead, oxide inclusions were rapidly entrapped by solidifying front.