Phase-field simulation of peritectic steels solidification with transformation-induced elastic effect

Peritectic carbon steels are more prone to surface cracking during continuous casting than other carbon steels. The main problems are the formation of longitudinal depressions and of transversal near-corner cracks. It is normally assumed that these problems are related to the δ->γ phase transformation and its associated volume contraction of 0.5%. In this work, we utilize phase-field simulations in the Fe–C and Fe–Mn to access the stress and strain fields which develop just as a consequence of the δ->γ phase transformation. We show that the deformation tends to concentrate in the vicinity of δ-γ-liquid triple junction and that the developed stresses are high enough to produce local plastic deformation of the phases. It is also demonstrated that the undercooling value set for the simulations affects the stress level in an important way.