Figure 3 shows a phase diagram of Fe-0.2wt%C-0.035wt%P-0.8wt%Mn-0.2wt%Si-0.006wt%N-xAl system calculated from CALPHAD method. 14) We employed the thermodynamic database, PanIron for all the calculations. 15) The horizontal axis is Al concentration. The liquidus temperature does not substantially change with the Al concentration. It should be noticed that the type of steel changes from hyperperitectic to hypoperitectic one at 0.53 wt% Al. When Al concentration is less than 0.53 wt%, the solidus temperature, in other words, T g decreases very slightly with Al concentration. On the other hand, in the range of Al concentration for hypoperitectic steel, d phase is stabilized at lower temperatures by increasing Al concentration, leading to drastic decrease in T g . As mentioned in the introduction, it has been reported that g grains grow rapidly below T g and, therefore, lowering T g leads to finer g grain structure. However, the decrement of T g up to 0.54 wt% Al is quite small. Therefore, the Al addition does not lead to significant change in the g grain structure during slow cooling process, as is consistent with the result of Figs. 1 and 2. In Fig. 3, also, the temperature for formation of AlN phase increases with the increase in Al concentration. However, the AlN phase forms at much lower temperatures than T g in all samples of the present experiments. Hence, it is considered that the AlN phase precipitates from g phase after g grain growth substantially occurs at the high temperature region. In the present SEM/EPMA analysis, AlN particles were rarely detected.
Casting ExperimentFigure 4(a) shows the as-cast g grain structure in the sample with 0.04 wt% Al. As described in the Sec. 2, the g grain boundary is decorated with film-like proeutectoid a phase. The bottom of the micrograph corresponds to the mold side, while the top part represents the center of the ingot. It is seen that the columnar grains develop from the mold side to the center of the ingot along the thickness direction, which coincides with the direction of heat flow in the present casting condition, and the equiaxed grains form in the central region. It is noted that very fine columnar grains form between the columnar grain region and the equiaxed grain region. Therefore, this as-cast g grain structure can be characterized by three regions, Coarse Columnar Grain (CCG) region near the mold side, Equiaxed Grain (EG) region in the central region of the ingot, and Fine Columnar Grain (FCG) region in between the CCG and the EG regions.Figure 4(b) shows the d dendrite structure at the same location. The d dendrite structure consists of columnar dendrites developing from the mold side to the inward of the sample and the equiaxed dendrites in the central region. By comparing the as-cast g grain and d dendrite structures (Figs. 4(a) and 4(b)), the CCG and FCG are found to originate from the columnar dendrites. The cooling rates at various positions from the mold side toward the center can be evaluated by the empirical equation, l 2 ϭ710(60Ṫ) Ϫ0.39 , wher...