Study of casting and solidification of slab ingot from tool steel using numerical modelling

Abstract

The main problem in the production of forgings from tool steels, especially thick plates, blocks, pulleys and rods which are used for special machine components for demanding applications, it is the inhomogeneous structure with segregations, cracks in segregations or complex type of non-metallic inclusions MnS and TiCN. These forgings are actually produced from conventional forging ingots. Due to the size of forgings, it would be interesting the production of these forgings from slab ingots. It is possible that the production of forgings from slab ingots (which are distinguished by a characteristic aspect ratio A/B), it would reduce the occurrence of segregations. The paper presents the verification of the production process of slab steel ingots in particular by means of numerical modelling using finite element method. The paper describes the pre-processing, processing and post-processing phases of numerical modelling. The attention was focused on the prediction of behavior of hot metal during the mold filling, on the verification of the final porosity, of the final segregation and on the prediction of risk of cracks depending on the actual geometry of the mold.