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Longitudinal crack on slab surface at straightening stage during continuous

casting using finite element method

Article  in  Journal of Central South University of Technology · April 2010

DOI: 10.1007/s11771-010-0036-0

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J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. (2010) 17: 235−238
DOI: 10.1007/s11771−010−0036−0

Longitudinal crack on slab surface at straightening stage during

continuous casting using finite element method

YU Hai-liang(喻海良)1, 2, LIU Xiang-hua(刘相华)1

1. State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, China;
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
© Central South University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010

Abstract: Deformation behavior of slab at the straightening stage during continuous casting was simulated by the explicit dynamic
finite element method, and the stress distribution along the width direction of the slab and its change regularity at slab center during
continuous casting were obtained. The influence of distribution and change of stress on the propagation of longitudinal cracks on slab
surface was discussed. The results show that the tensional stress appears on slab surface at the inner arc side and the compressive
stress appears on slab surface at the outer arc side at stages 6−8 in straightening zone during continuous casting. Longitudinal cracks
generally appear on slab top surface and do not appear on slab bottom surface, which are also observed in industry.

Key words: continuous casting slab; straightening; longitudinal crack; finite element method

in flat rolling process were simulated by ERVASTI and

1 Introduction
During continuous casting, the longitudinal cracks
might appear on slab surface, which would cause
bleed-out in casting and severely affect the quality of
slab, and some slabs might be directly rejected for the
large crack size [1]. Cracks on continuous casting slab
(CCS) surface might inherit to the rolled products [2−4].
And cracks on the surface of slab during rolling severely
affect the quality of rolled products [5−6]. Researches on
the initiation and propagation of longitudinal cracks on
the surface of slab during continuous casting are
important for guiding the production in industry.
There are many kinds of factors that might result in
longitudinal cracks on slab surface during continuous
casting, such as the continuous technologies, the
continuous casting equipment, the mechanical properties
of steel at high temperature, and the solidification
properties [7]. The initiation of longitudinal cracks on
slab surface during continuous casting was widely
investigated [7−9]. The linear defects on rolled plates
were caused by the surface longitudinal cracks on
continuous casting slab by ZHOU and LUO [8]. And
longitudinal cracks on continuous casting slab surface
were caused by defects of crystallizer. The finite element
method (FEM) has been widely used to analyze the
thermal distribution during continuous casting [10−12]
and the behavior of cracks on slab surface during rolling
[13−15]. The closure and growth of longitudinal cracks
STÅHIBERG [14] and analyzed under a variety of crack
sizes, roll radii and friction coefficients. The crack
behavior during rolling can be divided into three steps:
crack opening at the entrance to the gap, crack width
decreasing within the roll gap, and a slight crack
widening at the exit. The evolution behavior of the
longitudinal cracks on slab surfaces in rolling process
was analyzed by YUKAWA et al [15] using a
rigid-plastic finite element (FE) code. In the above
reviewed papers, the longitudinal cracks might appear on
slab surface during continuous casting, whose evolution
behavior during rolling was also simulated by finite
element method (FEM). However, researches on the
effect of stress distribution on the evolution of the
longitudinal cracks on slab surface at the straightening
stage during continuous casting using FEM were
reported.
Therefore, in this work, the deformation behavior of
slab at straightening stage during continuous casting was
investigated using the explicit dynamic FEM on the
platform of LS−DYNA. The stress (σZ) distribution on
slab and the stress change curve at center of slab top
surface at the straightening stage were obtained. And the
influence of the stress distribution on the behavior of
longitudinal cracks on slab surface was discussed.
2 Parameters and simulation
The deformation behavior of slab at straightening

Foundation item: Project(50634030) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(20090042120005) supported by the Doctorate
Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China; Project(2006CB605208-1) supported by the State Basic Research Program of China
Received date: 2009−03−05; Accepted date: 2009−07−11
Corresponding author: YU Hai-liang, PhD; Tel: +86−24−83681803; E-mail: yuhailiang1980@tom.com; yuhl@ral.neu.edu.cn
236
stage during continuous casting was simulated. In the FE
model, the slab was assumed to be solidification in the
straightening zone. The dimensions of slab profile (YZ
profile) were 2.00 m×0.25 m. The radius of basis arc of
casting mill was 10.3 m. The diameters of rollers from
normal stage to horizontal stage were 0.145−0.280 m,
separately. The length of rollers was 2.66 m. The pulling
speed of slab was 0.85 m/min. The Coulomb friction law
was employed for analyzing the contact conditions
between slab and rollers, and the friction coefficient was
0.35.
During continuous casting, the rigid model was
adopted for rollers, and the bilinear isotropic material
model was adopted for the slab. In the models, the
density of rollers and slab is 7.85 kg/dm3, elastic moduli
of rollers and slab are 210 and 117 GPa, respectively, the
Poisson ratio of slab is 0.36, and the deformation
resistance is calculated by
σ = Aε Bε& CT + D e FT
where σ is the deformation resistance; ε is the strain; ε&
is the strain rate; T is temperature; A, B, C, D and F are
material coeffients.
Due to symmetry of continuous casting process,
Fig.1 Geometrical and FE meshing models of slab during continuous casting: (a) Complete FE model of continuous casting;
(b) Local FE model in straightening zone
Fig.2 Stress (σZ) distribution on slab from inner arc side (a) and outer arc side (b)
J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. (2010) 17: 235−238
half of the continuous casting model was employed in
the FE model. According to the parameters above, the
geometrical model was established, as shown in
Fig.1(a). The slab and rollers were meshed with
8-noded hexahedral element. And the nodes on the
symmetrical surface were constrained and the
displacement along slab width direction was zero. In the
model, there are 23 376 elements and 47 246 nodes. The
meshing of continuous casting model is shown in
Fig.1(b).
3 Results and discussion
During continuous casting, there are 13 stages
together, where stage 0 is the vertical stage, stage 1 is
bending stage, stages 2−8 are datum arc stages and
straightening stages, and stages 9−12 are horizontal
stages. In continuous casting process, cracks often appear
on the surface of slabs. And the distribution and change
(1)
of stress on slab surface may play an important role on
the behavior of cracks.
Fig.2 shows stress (σZ) distribution on slab in the
straightening zone. As shown in Fig.2(a), PA−PD are the
points distributed at the center of slab surface on inner
J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. (2010) 17: 235−238
arc side around stages 6−8. The tensional stress will
appear in slab center zone on the inner arc side when the
slab passes through the zone at stages 6−8 during
continuous casting and will not appear when the slab is
in the zone at stages 0−5 and stages 9−12. The maximum
tensional stress reaches 1.60 MPa at the slab center,
which gradually decreases, approaching to the slab edge
side. In the same zone, from the outer arc side of slab,
the compressive stress appears on slab surface, and the
maximum stress reaches 2.22 MPa, as shown in Fig.2(b).
So the longitudinal cracks will not propagate in
straightening stage on the outer arc side of slab.
Fig.3 shows the change regularity of stress (σZ) at
slab center. When the slab passes through the zone of
stages 6−8, the tensional stress appears and gradually
increases to the maximum value of 0.8 MPa, and then
gradually decreases until the compressive stress appears.
It is obvious that the maximum tensional stress is less
than the deformation resistance of slab, so there will be
no cracks if the slab surface is of good quality before
these stages. However, during continuous casting, micro-
cracks might appear on slab surface due to the wear and
fish of sheet copper of crystallizer and defective libration.
So, if there are cracks deformed before the zone of stages
6−8, they might propagate for the stress concentration at
crack tip.
Fig.3 Change of stress (σZ) at slab center at stages 6−8 in
straightening zone during continuous casting
As shown in Fig.4, the longitudinal crack in the
zone of slab center appears on slab surface of the inner
arc side during continuous casting.
According to the symmetry of crystallizer, when
there exits a crystallizer in the slab, the surface quality of
slab will be the same between the inner arc side of the
slab and the outer arc side of the slab. So, there are
microcracks on both sides of slab surface. Similarly, the
evolution behavior of microcracks in the vertical stage
will be also the same. However, most longitudinal cracks
are observed on the slab top surface (inner arc side) in
products. So the deformation behavior of slab at the
237
Fig.4 Longitudinal cracks on continuous casting slab from top
surface (a) and side surface (b)
straightening stage will directly affect the initiation and
propagation of longitudinal cracks on slab surface during
continuous casting. From results in Figs.2 and 3, the
compressive stress will appear on slab surface when the
slab passes through stages 0−5, which will not result in
the propagation of longitudinal cracks; and the tensional
stress will appear on slab surface on inner arc side when
the slab passes through stages 6−8, which might make
the cracks propagate. So stages 6−8 are the key stages for
the occurrence of longitudinal cracks during continuous
casting.
In Fig.4, the longitudinal crack is model-I crack.
The local crack increments [16−17] are obtained
according to the Paris law:
da
= C ( y∆σ πa ) m (2)
dN
where da/dN is the local crack growth rate of the crack
tip at the depth; a is the crack length at a depth crack; C
and m are constants; y is the factor of crack shape.
From Eq.(2), the local crack increment is in a direct
proportion to the stress around crack and the initial crack
size. When the slab with micro-longitudinal cracks on
slab surface passes through stages 6−8, the tensional
stress on the surface of inner arc side of slab will
gradually increase. If the tensional stress makes the
cracks propagate, the crack intensity factor range
( y∆σ πa ) will further increase, and the crack
propagation speed will also increase. The propagation of
cracks will not stop until the compressive stress appears
on the slab surface. So the size of longitudinal cracks on
slab top surface is generally large, as shown in Fig.4.
 238
4 Conclusions
(1) The deformation behavior of slab during
continuous casting is simulated by finite element
method.
(2) During continuous casting, compressive stress
(σZ) will appear on slab surface when slab passes through
stages 0−5 and stages 9−11, and compressive stress will
appear on the outer arc side of slab surface when slab
passes through stages 6−8, where the longitudinal cracks
will not propagate; the tensional stress will appear on the
inner arc side of slab surface, and the longitudinal cracks
may propagate. The phenomenon is the same as that
observed in the industry during continuous casting.
(3) The relationship between the stress and the size
of longitudinal cracks still needs to be studied further.
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