Development of an analytical model to predict the microstructure of continuously cast steel slabs

Although many investigations have recognised the significant influence of the solidification structure on the quality of continuously cast products, only a few of them have aimed to predict the microstructure and its variation through the thickness of the product. In this work a simple analytical model to estimate the evolution of dendrite arm spacing and austenitic grain size in continuously cast slabs of low carbon steels is presented. The results of the model were compared with measurements reported in literature and also carried out in this work. In spite of the rough assumptions made in the development of the model, a reasonable agreement was found between measured and calculated values.