A coupled model of TiN inclusion growth in GCr15SiMn during solidification in the electroslag remelting process

TiN inclusions observed in an ingot produced by electroslag remelting (ESR) are extremely harmful to GCr15SiMn steel. Therefore, accurate predictions of the growth size of these inclusions during steel solidification are significant for clean ESR ingot production. On the basis of our previous work, a coupled model of solute microsegregation and TiN inclusion growth during solidification has been established. The results demonstrate that compared to a non-coupled model, the coupled model predictions of the size of TiN inclusions are in good agreement with experimental results using scanning electron microscopy with energy disperse spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Because of high cooling rate, the sizes of TiN inclusions in the edge area of the ingots are relatively small compared to the sizes in the center area. During the ESR process, controlling the content of Ti in the steel is a feasible and effective method of decreasing the sizes of TiN inclusions.