To investigate the alleviation technology of internal cracks, center shrinkage cavities and center segregation of as-cast bloom simultaneously, a three-dimensional finite element model was developed to calculate and analyze the strain fields and deformation behavior of as-cast bloom induced by soft reduction process. In the present work, a multi-stage mechanical soft reduction (MSR) has been developed to simultaneously alleviate center segregation and shrinkage cavities without internal cracks, which aims to provide theoretical basis for improving the internal quality of high carbon as-cast blooms induced by soft reduction technologies. According to the experimental results, the internal cracks were effectively alleviated and center shrinkage cavities were nearly eliminated by optimum designed experiments, the homogeneity and compactness of as-cast bloom can been remarkably improved in comparison with that induced by the conventional soft reduction process. The carbide size and bandwidth of the carbides in the hotrolled wire were both decreased.

The crack formation and propagation were analysed according to actual internal crack morphology and the finite element model simulation of stress concentration. The results showed that most cracks were distributed along the transverse and the longitudinal section of the bloom. Distinct differences between these two major types of cracks were found in dimension and inclination, which were owing to different local stress concentrations. In the longitudinal section of the bloom, shear stress was concentrated in the brittle temperature region, which led to the formation of initial cracks and subsequently cracks propagation. Meanwhile, the maximum tensile stress occurred at the edge between the brittle temperature region and surrounding material, which resulted in crack formation and propagation along the transverse section of the bloom. This phenomenon was due to the obvious bulging deformation of the solidified shell induced by soft reduction.

In the current study, the morphology of the off-corner subsurface cracks located on the cross section of continuous casting bloom under a soft reduction operation was observed. A 3D thermo-mechanical model was adopted to calculate the temperature history, bulging deformation and stress distributions in the reduction region, and then to analyze the formation of the off-corner subsurface cracks under the influence of soft reduction. The results showed that the off-corner subsurface cracks can be formed under the influence of the extensive stress fields which develop in the cracking temperature range, especially located on the loosed side of the bloom corner region. Adjusting the chamfer angle and chamfer length can decrease stress concentration and bulging deformation to minimize the risk of off-corner subsurface cracks during the soft reduction operation.

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MgO·Al2O3 spinel nucleation is attributed to the organization of clusters into ordered lattice structures by a multi-step nucleation pathway.