Internal Crack Propagation in a Continuously Cast Austenitic Stainless Steel Analyzed by Actual Residual Stress Tensor Distributions

Initiation, propagation, and termination of internal cracks in a continuously cast austenitic stainless steel has been investigated with emphasis on stress loading of the solidified shell during casting. Cracks were formed at the center of the slab, parallel to the width of the cast, and were observed near the narrow faces. Optimized two-dimensional X-ray diffraction method was employed to measure residual stress tensor distributions around the cracks in the as-cast slab with coarse and strongly preferentially oriented grains. The tensor distributions had a sharp peak, as high as 430 MPa, at the crack end neighboring the columnar grains. On the other hand, lower values were measured at the crack end neighboring the equiaxed grains, where the local temperatures were higher during solidification. The true residual stress distributions were determined by evaluating the longitudinal elastic constant for each measured position, resulting in more accurate stress values than before. Electron probe micro-analysis at the terminal crack position showed that Ni, Ti, and Si were concentrated at the boundaries of the equiaxed grains, where the tensile strength was estimated to be lower than at the primary grains. A model of the crack formation and engineering recommendations to reduce crack formation are proposed.