Roles of titanium-rich precipitates as inoculants during solidification in low carbon steel

The effect of titanium on the as-cast structure and the growth form of titanium precipitates, and the effect of cooling rate on the size and distribution of titanium precipitates were studied. It is shown that Ti-rich precipitates acting as heterogeneous nucleation sites play an important role in refining the grain size and increasing the equiaxed grain ratio. Cooling rate has a great effect on the size and distribution of precipitates. The number of precipitates increases and the size decreases with the increase of cooling rate. Ti-rich particles acting as heterogeneous nucleation sites at the onset of solidification are observed in the experiment. This result suggests that TiN nucleated on Ti₂O₃ is an effective inoculant for δ-ferrite during solidification in low carbon steel.