Formation Mechanism of a Wide-Face Longitudinal Off-Corner Depression During Thick Slab Continuous Casting

In practical continuous casting, consecutive longitudinal depressions often occur in the off-corner areas of slab wide faces, which may cause surface cracks in the depression areas and subsurface cracks beneath the depressions. To investigate the formation mechanism of the longitudinal depression, a 3D transient thermomechanical-coupled model was developed in the present work with consideration of the heat transfer in steel strand, thermal shrinkage of solidifying shell, ferrostatic pressure, contact with mold and guiding rolls, etc. Based on the model, evolution of the longitudinal off-corner depression and the associated thermal, distortion, and strain behaviors of steel slab were studied partly or fully throughout the continuous casting process. The results showed that the shell shrinkage in mold leads to an obvious shell-mold interfacial gap in the corner and off-corner areas. At the mold exit, the continuous expansion of corner gap at the wide-face side results in a thin spot forming at approximately 50 mm off the corner. When the shell moves out of the lateral strand guide rolls, narrow face of the shell bulges outward and rotates the corner, during which the thin spot in the wide-face off-corner area bends inward and shapes a longitudinal depression. As the shell moves down, the longitudinal depression deepens and widens in zones 2 to 4, and becomes stable in the subsequent cooling zones. When the shell moves through the soft reduction segments, depth and width of the longitudinal depression decrease as the marginal areas of the depressions are flattened. The model in this work is supposed to reveal an insight into the formation of consecutive longitudinal off-corner depressions at the wide face of slab during continuous casting.