2018 Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 78-87
The current paper focuses on the effect of different operating conditions on the content of inclusions and cleanliness of remelting ingots. For these investigations, eight ingots were remelted with two slag amount and with two current intensity under otherwise comparable remelting conditions. A two-dimensional (2D) coupled mathematical model was employed to simulate the velocity field, solidification and inclusion motion for a system of electrode, slag and ingot in electroslag remelting (ESR) processes, to reveal the inclusion removal mechanism. The results showed that the content of large-sized inclusions in ESR ingot was decreased by approximately 66.18% when the slag amount was increased from 17.85 kg to 20.50 kg. Because of the increase of slag amount, the metal and slag flow faster and the maximal velocity increases by 10.3%, thus there is an increasing trend in trajectories of inclusions (i.e., inclusion motion) in slag pool resulted from the stronger natural convective flow, which is beneficial for the inclusion removal. When the average current was increased from 4 kA to 5 kA, the content of large-sized inclusions in ESR ingot was decreased by approximately 51.38%. Because of the increasing of current, the flow in the middle of the slag pool becomes stronger and the maximal downward velocity increases by 2.7%, thus there is an increasing trend in the renewal rate of the metal film surface due to the stronger washing by slag flow, which can promote the inclusion removal.
