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The heterogeneous undercooling degree of interstitial-free steel (IF steel) on various substrates was measured through observing the recalescence phenomenon by sessile drop method at the oxygen partial pressure of 10−23 atm, where there was no obvious interaction between the steel and the substrate. The wetting behavior of liquid IF steel against different substrates was also studied during the sessile drop test. The results suggested that the undercooling degree increased with the increase of cooling rate, and the effective contact surface area between the liquid steel and the solid substrate could not fully explain the undercooling behavior of the designed cases as there is no interaction layer. Furthermore, a method to calculate the critical contact angle for IF steel against its substrate was developed in this study, which could be adapted to explain the undercooling variance of IF steel with the change of its substrate. The undercooling degree increased with the increase of the critical contact angle, and the critical contact angle was also improved with the increase of lattice disregistry.

A mold simulator has been successfully used to study the initial solidification behavior of the molten low carbon steel. Coupled with 2D-IHCD calculation and PSD analysis, the variations of the responding temperatures and heat fluxes, as well as the relationship between shell surface profile, heat flux, shell thickness, mold level fluctuation, and the infiltrated slag film, were investigated in this article. The results suggested that the mold high-frequency temperatures and heat fluxes above liquid steel level vary with the oscillation of the mold, and show an opposite variation pattern as those below the shell tip. The formed shell surface profile is directly correlated to the variation of high-frequency heat fluxes, where the formation of oscillation mark is associated with a sudden increase of the heat flux during negative strip time. Mold level fluctuation contributes to the formation of the extra oscillation marks. The growth of shell thickness follows the square root law, and the instantaneous solidification factor is large near the shell tip and becomes small in the area where the deep shell surface depression is formed. The thickness of the slag film in between mold and shell is in the range of 1.4 to 2.46 mm, and the crystallization of mold flux in mold/shell gap is dynamic.

Mold flux solidification and heat transfer experiments under both non-oscillation and oscillation modes have been conducted and compared with the help of Mold Flux Heat Transfer Simulator (MFHTS) technique. The results suggested that the steady-state responding heat flux in the mode of oscillation is smaller than that in non-oscillation operation, and a transition time is observed in the responding temperature and heat flux profiles during the oscillation experiments. The oscillation of mold would introduce the roughness of slag film surface and the enlargement of air gap at the interface of mold/flux film; thus, the interfacial thermal resistance was enhanced. In addition, the thermal conductivity of solid crystalline mold flux and mold/flux film interfacial thermal resistance at steady state were calculated in this work. The thermal conductivity of crystalline mold flux was about 1.43 to 1.76 W m−1 K−1, and the interfacial thermal resistance R int in oscillation operation was calculated as 17.3 to 22.5 × 10−4 m2 (K W−1) in the measured region. The obtained interfacial thermal resistance R int in this work is higher than that in non-oscillation operations.

A Mold Flux Heat Transfer Simulator technique was developed to investigate the solidification and heat transfer behavior of mold flux in this study. The results suggested that the responding temperatures and heat fluxes increase intensively within the first second, due to the direct heating from the liquid core. It takes 1 second for the system to be heated up and to form the initial solidified mold flux shell, such that the heat fluxes and the liquid front temperature would start to reduce after that. After 2.5 seconds, the in-mold responding temperature and heat fluxes are getting attenuated with the development of the mold flux solidification and crystallization. After 15-20 seconds, the system steps into a quasi-steady state, as the cooling potential becomes identical to the heating potential due to the further development of total thermal resistance that is introduced by the further solidification and crystallization of mold flux. In addition, a mathematic model was built to calculate the interfacial thermal resistance (R int) at the mold/flux interface, and the calculated interfacial thermal resistance was around 18.9 × 10−4 m2 K W−1, which accounts for about 78.4 pct of the total thermal resistance.

The initial shell solidification of liquid steel in the mold has significant influence on both surface and internal quality of the final slab, and it is mainly determined by the high transient high temperature thermodynamics occurring in the mold. This study investigated the effects of casting parameters like casting temperature, mold oscillation frequency, and stroke on the initial solidification of a Sn-Pb alloy through the use of a mold simulator to allow the clear understanding of the inter-relationship between irregular shell solidification, heat transfer, negative strip time (NST), and casting conditions. Results suggested that the shell surface oscillation marks (OMs) are strongly depending upon the fluctuations of meniscus responding temperatures and heat flux. An abrupt sudden fluctuation of high frequency temperature and heat flux at the meniscus during the NST would deteriorate the shell surface and leads to deep OMs. The fluctuations of responding temperature and heat flux are determined by the NST, meniscus solidification, and oil infiltration, which in turn are influenced by casting conditions, like casting temperature, oscillation frequency, stroke, etc.

The importance of initial solidification of molten steel in the mold has been widely acknowledged. However, very few studies have been effectively developed because of the high transient nature of thermodynamics and fluid flow in the upper mold. Based on the recently developed mold simulator technology, a novel technique has been successfully developed to study the initial solidification behavior of Sn-Pb alloy, which gives rise to the clear understanding of the interrelationship between complex meniscus heat transfer, casting surface oscillation marks (OM), and mold hot-surface responding temperatures. The results suggested that the variations of the responding temperatures and heat flux at meniscus may be associated with the movement of mold in/out of the bath, the infiltration of silicon oil, and the latent heat release due to the solidification of meniscus during negative strip time (NST). The presence of positive peaks in the derivative of the heat flux are corresponding to each of the OM during NST, which suggests the significant increase of heat flux during the formation of OM. These could be explained as the meniscus is deformed and gets closer to the coldest mold at the beginning of NST, such that the liquid meniscus that gives rise to the increase of heat flux would be solidified. With the enhancement of oil infiltration from the mid-NST to end-NST, the thermal resistance between the solidified meniscus and mold decreases; therefore, the shell continues to grow, and the resulting heat-transfer and mold temperatures also continue to increase.

An investigation has been conducted to study the effect of Na2O and B2O3 on the crystallization behavior of low fluorine (F) mold powders for casting medium carbon (MC) steels in this article. The results of this study indicated that B2O3 tends to lower the crystallization temperature and increase crystallization incubation time of the low F powders; however, Na2O plays an opposite role compared with that of B2O3. The crystalline phase of Ca11Si4B2O22 was formed in Sample D2 [F = 3 pct, Na2O = 10 pct, B2O3 = 8 pct (in wt pct)], which exhibited the most similar crystallization behavior to that of cuspidine, such that Sample D2 showed closest crystallization kinetics to that of a conventional high-F mold slag for casting MC steels. The precipitated crystalline phases for all the samples have been analyzed and discussed in the article.

During the continuous casting of low-carbon Nb–Ti microalloyed steel, control of the slab surface microstructure and the behavior of the second-phase precipitation are significantly influenced by the cooling rate. Through confocal laser scanning microscopy, the effect of the cooling rate on the behavior of ferrite precipitation both at the grain boundary and within the austenite was observed in situ and analyzed. The relationship between the cooling rate and precipitation of the microalloying elements on the slab surface microstructure was further analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the effect of microalloying element precipitation on proeutectoid ferrite phase transformation is mainly manifested in two aspects: (i) the carbonitrides of microalloying elements act as inoculant particles to promote nucleation of the proeutectoid ferrite and (ii) the carbon near the grain boundary is depleted when the microalloying elements precipitate into carbonitrides, inducing a decrease in the local carbon concentration and promoting ferrite precipitation.

The basicity of mold flux has been recognized to have a significant influence on the mold flux crystallization in continuous casting, which would in turn affect the heat-transfer rate between the solidified shell and mold. The research regarding the mold flux crystallization as well as its effect on the heat transfer has been conducted intensively. However, few studies have been developed to specify the effect of basicity introduced mold flux crystallization on the radiative heat transfer and interfacial thermal resistance in continuous casting. By using an infrared radiation emitter, a radiative heat flux was applied to a copper mold covered with a solid mold flux disk to simulate the heat-transfer phenomena in continuous casting. The crystallization behaviors of mold fluxes with different basicities and their impact on the radiative heat transfer were investigated dynamically. The interfacial thermal resistance between the solid mold flux and copper mold was also studied in this article. The results suggested that the basicity tends to enhance the mold flux crystallization, leading to the reduction of radiative heat-transfer rate and enlargement of interfacial thermal resistance.

The effect of basicity on the mold fluxes crystallization was investigated in this article. The time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams and continuous-cooling-transformation (CCT) diagrams of mold fluxes with different basicity were constructed by using single, hot thermocouple technology (SHTT). The results showed that with the increase of basicity, the incubation time of isothermal crystallization became shorter, the crystallization temperature was getting higher, and the critical cooling rate of continuous cooling crystallization became faster. The X-ray diffraction analysis suggested that calcium silicate (CaO·SiO2) was precipitated at the upper part of the TTT diagram and cuspidine (Ca4Si2O7F2) was formed at the lower part, when the basicity of mold fluxes was within 1.0 to 1.2. However, when basicity was 0.8, only the cuspidine phase was formed. A kinetic study of isothermal crystallization process indicated that the increase of the basicity tended to enhance the mold flux crystallization, and the crystallization activation energy became smaller. The crystallization mechanism of cupsidine was changing from one-dimensional growth to three-dimensional growth with a constant number of nuclei, when the basicity of mold fluxes varied from 0.8 to 1.2.

In the continuous casting of the microalloyed steel, the slab surface transversal cracking could be prevented through the control of the slab surface microstructure, which correlates with the precipitation behavior of carbonitrides in the microalloyed steel. Therefore, the cooling rate is the key factor to determine the precipitation behavior of carbonitrides. This article used confocal laser scanning microscopy to study the effect of different cooling rates on the precipitation behavior of the carbonitrides in the microalloyed steel slab. When the cooling rate is less than 3 K·s−1, the precipitates in the steel are coarse, growing out along the austenite grain boundaries, and form a chain-like distribution. These precipitates seriously reduced the hot ductility of slab. Quantitative study between the cooling rate and the precipitation behavior of carbonitrides in microalloyed steel also has been developed. The results of this study could be used to improve the understanding of the slab surface microstructure controlling to enhance the hot ductility of the slab and avoid the surface crack of the slab.

An investigation was carried out to study the radiative heat transfer behavior of two typical mold fluxes for casting low (Flux1) and medium (Flux2) carbon steels. By using an infrared radiation emitter, a radiative heat flux was applied to a copper mold covered with solid mold flux disk to simulate the heat transfer phenomena in continuous casting. The effective thermal conductivities were determined by measuring the temperature gradient in the copper mold system. It was found that the solid crystalline mold Flux2 for casting medium carbon steel has a better capability to transfer heat than that of solid crystalline Flux1, while their glassy fluxes behave similar capability. The DHTT (Double Hot Thermocouple Technique) was employed in this paper to study the heat transfer capability of the crystalline mold fluxes. DHTT measurements suggested that the thermal diffusivity of crystalline sample of Flux2 is higher than that of Flux1. The XRD and SEM results were indicated that the precipitated crystalline phase for Flux1 is only granular cuspidine, Ca4Si2O7F2, while those for Flux2 are consisted of dendritic cuspidine, Ca4Si2O7F2 and gehlenite, Ca2Al2SiO7.