Inclusion metallurgy

The amount, composition, size, and morphology of inclusions significantly affect the quality of stainless steel. In order to investigate the inclusions in the production of 316Ti-grade stainless steel, inclusion compositions in melt-shop process samples were analysed and compared with thermodynamic calculations. The results were then used to estimate the influence of aluminium and titanium contents of the metal on the formation of oxide and nitride inclusions at different temperatures and oxygen and nitrogen concentrations.

Highlights

• A mathematical model has been developed for the nucleation, growth and removal of alumina inclusions.
• A mathematical model has been developed for the precipitation of MnS and TiN during solidification.

Selected publications

• Q. Shu, V.-V. Visuri, T. Alatarvas, and T. Fabritius, “Modeling the precipitation of aluminum nitride inclusions during solidification of high aluminum steels", Steel Research International, vol. 95, no. 11, 2024. 2300393
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• Q. Shu, T. Alatarvas, V.-V. Visuri, and T. Fabritius, "Modelling the Nucleation, Growth and Agglomeration of Alumina Inclusions in Molten Steel by Combining Kampmann Wagner Numerical Model with Particle Size Grouping Method", Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 1818–1829, 2021.
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• Q. Shu, V.-V. Visuri, T. Alatarvas, and T. Fabritius, "A Model for Inclusion Precipitation Kinetics during Solidification of Steel-Applications in MnS and TiN inclusions", Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 51, no. 6, pp. 2905–2916, 2020.
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• E.-P. Heikkinen, J. Savolainen, T. Ikäheimonen, V.-V. Visuri, and T. Fabritius, "A study on the Al-Ti-O-N inclusions in austenitic stainless steels – a comparison between CTD and process samples", Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Clean Steel, Hungarian Mining and Metallurgical Society, Budapest, Hungary, 316–329, 2012.