Effects of heavy reduction technology on internal quality of continuous casting bloom

Heavy reduction technology of the bloom is realised without modifying the hydraulic equipment if a crown roll is used. Experimental results of GCr15 showed that the ratio of reduction amount to broadening amount increased from 2.0 (flat roll reduction) to 4.4 (crown roll reduction), which indicated that reduction efficiency is significantly improved. It is evident that the enriched molten steel in the mushy zone will be squeezed out if the crown roll heavy reduction technology is adopted. Thus, centre segregation and V segregation is suppressed or even eliminated. The average centre carbon segregation index is reduced from 1.74 to 1.06, and negative segregation may occur. Meanwhile, the centre shrinkage cavity is clearly decreased and the centre porosity grade is remarkably reduced to 1.0. The calculation results of elastic–plastic FEM model showed that heavy reduction at the solidification end is very beneficial to improve the centre shrinkage cavity.