Methods for Studying the Structural State of Continuously Cast Slabs and the Hot-Rolled Metal Produced at the Casting and Rolling Complex

The metallographic methods of studying the structural features of the metal of a continuously cast slab and the hot-deformed metal with a carbon content of up to 0.31% produced on the casting and rolling complex at the Vyksa Steel Works are considered. The main attention is paid to methodological solutions, which allow us to qualitatively and quantitatively estimate the dendritic structure and the initial austenite grain size in a continuously cast slab and to find a relation between the structural states of continuously cast steel and the related hot-rolled steel. Such quantitative indicators of the dendritic structure of a “thin” continuously cast slab as the density of a dendritic structure and the secondary dendrite arm spacing are determined. The secondary dendrite arm spacings in a thin slab are found to be several times smaller than that in a “thick” slab. The change in a dendritic structure induced by hot deformation is shown to be best estimated using the change in the sizes and number of dendritic structure elements.