The influence of mould metallurgy on surface defects in peritectic carbon and austenitic stainless steels

This paper describes the work done on a collaborative ECSC project between British Steel, CSM and Irsid to investigate the causes of surface defects in peritectic carbon and austenitic stainless steels.Grooved mould plates of different designs have been used during plant trials to modify the heat transfer in the continuous casting mould and results are correlated with slab and plate defect data. Modelwork to study the thermomechanical behaviour of the solidifying shell near the meniscus is also described. Neural networks have been used off-line with data from the experimental investigations of the partners, to assess the casting conditions and predict the occurrence of defects.