Regular Article

Research on the variation of the inclusion and sulfur content in Pipeline steel

¹ School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China
² Hengyang Valin Steel Tube Co. Ltd., Hunan 421001, PR China

^* e-mail: wanlin.wang@gmail.com

Received: 19 October 2020
Accepted: 12 February 2021

Abstract

Pipeline steel is widely used in various industries, and the sulfur content and inclusions in steel have a significant impact on performance, which determines whether the steel quality is qualified. The experiments were carried out to explore the sulfur content and inclusion evolution of pipeline steel which was deoxidized by Si–Mn–Al with “EAF-LF-VD-T-CC”. The samples of molten steel and slag were taken during the process of LF-VD-Tundish after EAF tapping. The kinetics model was established to simulate the desulfuration process of molten steel in actual production, obtaining a result which the error is within 3 ppm. It can be summarized that proper calcium treatment can transform the inclusion into a liquid inclusion, the value of [Ca] ranges from 25 to 45 ppm. Too high and lower calcium treatment can cause the compositions of inclusions to deviate from the liquid phase area, while too low calcium treatment will increase the overall size and density of the inclusions. In addition, the evolution of inclusion in steel at refining temperature and during solidification process was comprehensively calculated, considering all types of inclusions such as calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, aluminum oxide, calcium sulfide, spinel, calcium aluminate and liquid inclusion. The thermodynamic calculations are in good agreement with experimental results, which can predict the formation of the inclusions in Si–Mn–Al deoxidized pipeline steel.