The effect of alloy elements on the density variation of steel melt at the interdendritic region during solidification

Alloying elements in steels have essential effects on the formation of macrosegregation by inducing a density difference between the mushy zone and the bulk melt, and even by the alteration of the solidified microstructure. Hence, in terms of the thermodynamic laws for solidification of an idealized dilute solution, a systematic theoretical analysis on the effect of elements on the density variation of the interdendritic melt is presented for common Fe-based binary alloys. It shows that density variation closely associates with three crucial parameters: the microsegregation parameter λ, the temp-comp-expansion parameter β and the initial composition CL o . With these derived parameters, a simple analytical model is proposed to assess the influence of alloy elements on density change. The theoretical analysis indicates that compared to silicon, the effect of carbon on the density variation cannot be ignored, which is remarkably different from the previous recognition of these two elements. The macrosegregation induced by carbon only is experimentally validated by two dissected 500 kg ingots with different carbon contents. Furthermore, to directly validate the results of theoretical analysis a macrosegregation model with two different microsegregation laws (lever rule and Scheil equation) is established. Then simulations of the convection during solidification in the experimental 500 kg reference ingot are performed for Fe-C and Fe-Si alloys, respectively. It demonstrates that numerically simulated effects of carbon and silicon on the interdendritic convection induced by density inversion are fairly consistent with the analytical predictions.