A novel Approach for the Simulation of Surface Crack Formation in Continuous Casting

The present study describes the possibilities of new experimental and numerical methods to predict the crack susceptibility of steels under continuous casting (CC) conditions. The first method—the In-Situ Material Characterization by Bending (IMC-B) Experiment allows measuring the critical strain values for surface defects upon all the most important process and material parameters. The IMC-B experiment uses solidified samples obtained directly from the melt and is based on the 3-point bending test. Strains are calculated directly after the experiment has used a simulation in Abaqus. The risk of surface cracks is shown by using the new numerical tool, so-called defect indices implemented in IDS. In the framework of practical series, a crack susceptibility of the commercial Nb-microalloyed steel is investigated after the subsequent cooling to the test temperature. Samples cast at two different cooling conditions show another distribution of surface defects and critical strain value.