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By Daniel Antonio Kapper Fabricio

A avaliação das propriedades de mecânica da fratura dos materiais é uma necessidade crescente, sobretudo no setor de óleo e gás. Esse cenário exige a garantia da qualidade na execução de ensaios de tenacidade à fratura. Esse trabalho tem como objetivo realizar uma comparação intralaboratorial para o ensaio de tenacidade à fratura KIC variando o executante do ensaio, visando atender ao requisito de garantia da qualidade da norma NBR ISO/IEC 17025. Os resultados foram comparados através de análise de variância. As diferenças entre os operadores não foram significativas frente ao erro residual a um nível de confiança de 95%, sendo tal resultado considerado satisfatório.

Aug 16, 2017

By Adriana Amaro Diacenco

This work presents the finite element modeling of Euler-Bernoulli beams constituted of a metallic material, discussing theoretical and numerical aspects. The numerical analysis uses Hermitian interpolation functions and finite elements with two degrees of freedom per node. A numerical simulation will be done for uniform loading considering two kinds beams (steel and aluminum). The paper is organized as follows: introductory comments and numerical simulations to evaluate the static and dynamical behavior of the metallic beams.

Aug 7, 2018

By Mark Gilliam

Control of true steel level in the tundish during casting is desired in order to maintain the correct pressure head and thus provide a stable flow to the mold. Also the control of tundish draining prevents slag carryover and can increase yield at each end of cast sequence. At Steel of West Virginia (part of the SDI Group), it was understood that to be able to measure the true steel running level and control the drain level at the end of casting would be a great benefit during production at their three strand billet caster. This paper sets out to show how an evaluation process was started to find the best method to determine steel level in the tundish and to prevent the steel level dropping low enough to allow slag to enter the mold. Also how the decision was taken and a real time molten steel measurement system was installed and by utilizing the resulting data in the process, how slag in the mold was removed as an issue, how lost production was reduced and how consistent steel level has provided constant casting speeds and improved stream integrity, all leading to realized quality improvements. Other areas discussed within the paper will be the training of operational staff, the difficulties to be overcome when first installing new equipment and how these teething problems were cured by close co-operation between the steel plant and the equipment suppliers. In conclusion the paper will discuss the production improvements achieved, production cost savings at the plant and how the generated data was integrated into the plants process control system.

Aug 16, 2017

By Frank Schrama

The Steel Plant Model (SPM) is an advanced logistic simulation model for steel plants. With the SPM, bottlenecks can be solved and logistics can be optimized. Both existing plants and greenfield designs can be simulated. All movements and actions simulated, from hot metal to cast products. Not only all major equipment and their relevant components (like a sublance) are simulated, but also ladles, scrap boxes, transfer cars and cranes. The whole plant is simulated in 3D and actual distances and speeds determine transport times. The SPM includes process time deviations and equipment downtimes for maintenance or unexpected breakdowns. This ensures more realistic and reliable results. Logistic optimization is based on comparison of different scenarios. For a new scenario, equipment and practices, etc. can easily be modified, added or removed. At the same time the SPM produces all relevant data for every new scenario, which can be presented conveniently. This makes the SPM the ultimate tool to find bottlenecks or optimize plant logistics. The SPM is validated for several plants world-wide, with different characteristics and layouts. The SPM not only realistically simulates existing plants with all utilizations, crane movements and waiting times, but also to accurately predicts the influence of plant modifications or unexpected events like breakdowns. Given the flexibility of the SPM, any (new) steel plant can be simulated quickly when a layout and the requested data are provided.

Aug 16, 2017

By Ulrich Sommers

The Intelligent Furnace (I-Furnace) by SMS group is a smart furnace process and production optimization model. The combination of various tools leads to an optimized heat treatment and production process. It combines a mathematical/physical model to control the furnace with EMG’s IMPOC system for online strength measurement and a newly developed annealing microstructure model to predict material properties. This paper reports about the revamping of an existing galvanizing line, where a mathematical/physical control model has been implemented in combination with an online quality measurement system. This way, the process improvement of continuous galvanizing lines and the quality management of a range of steels including AHSS will be demonstrated. Furthermore, it gives information about the development of the annealing microstructure model to predict material characteristics. Eventually, the I-Furnace will be presented according to the current development and reference status.

Oct 30, 2017

By Marcus Vinicius Laudares Mendonça

SMS calculates and improves tooth and flank profiles individually to realise a homogeneous pressure distribution over the complete load flank. With a tooth profile and flank profile according to AGMA, ISO or DIN standard the contact pressure varies along the load flank. To realize a homogeneous distribution of the contact pressure and to avoid a premature mesh, SMS improves the tooth profile and flank profile in three steps. First SMS is doing a preliminary calculation and design according ISO, DIN or AGMA standard, with safety factors based on more than 125 years of experience. Second SMS calculates and checks the local contact pressure at the load flank under consideration of shaft, gearing and housing deformation, as well as the bearing behaviour. Finally SMS calculates and designs an improved tooth profile and flank profile to receive a homogeneous contact pressure at the load flank. The result is an increase of the torque transmitting capacity of up to 30% of the SMS advanced gears with the same outer dimensions than traditional gears.

Aug 17, 2017

By Andreas Cestonaro

Roll grade evolution in plate mill applications is traditionally following the development in hot strip mills. New grades normally find their way into service only after being successfully implemented in hot strip production. The majority of the plate mills worldwide are using work roll grades that have been invented before the 1980’s. But today the demands in the mills are pushed by sophisticated product mixes and longer rolling campaigns. The result of this development is a higher wear rate on the work rolls and as a consequence roll hardness is increased and advanced roll materials are used. The backup rolls are also affected by this. The wear rate is higher and the mechanical impact in terms of contact pressure and work hardening is increasing. This paper outlines the results of the roll grade development at Gontermann-Peipers and introduces new materials for work and backup rolls for plate mills.

Jul 30, 2018

By Edo Engel

Hot Blast Stove Technology has been developed to such an extent that low cost hot metal production for over 30 years without major repairs has become achievable, making the decision for a campaign length between 5 to over 30 years a design choice for the plant owner/operator. Some of the earlier examples of designs capable of such long campaign lengths are currently close to the 50th year of their running campaign. These examples are found especially in Europe and North America. Along the duration of these campaigns, repairs to subsystems such as burners, hot blast outlets etc. may be required. Depending on a plant’s up and down stream production capacities, the repairs may have to take place in the shortest possible time frame to minimize production loss. This article discusses an approach for intermediate repairs, executed while keeping the majority of the system at operating temperature.

Oct 30, 2017

By Rodrigo Fina Ferreira

This paper presents a mineral liberation study on two iron ore samples from the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, in Brazil: compact itabirite of low-grade metamorphism (CI) and friable itabirite of high-grade metamorphism (FI). The quartz liberation spectrum for both samples have been obtained through QEMSCAN analyses, carried out for several comminution degrees, to compare the liberation characteristics and to evaluate the evolution of the quartz’s liberation degree after fragmentation. The results have shown significant differences in liberation spectrum between the itabirite samples studied. The liberation process of FI was easier than of CI, due its high porosity and larger crystal size compared with CI, which has shown more complex mineral assemblages with low porosity and smaller crystals. The quartz liberation spectrum has shown that grinding at P95 of 0.210 mm for the FI sample, and of 0.045 mm for CI sample, should result in satisfactory liberation for subsequent concentration step.

Aug 1, 2018

By Armando Vazquez

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) and Tenova Goodfellow Inc. (TGI) have successfully commissioned the first hybrid extractive/laser system for continuous and full spectrum analysis (CO, CO2, O2, H2 and H2O vapor) on two twin shell furnaces at Butler, Indiana. NextGen® technology using off-gas analysis as a main tool for EAF practice optimization is a proven effective method for improving plant productivity. Significant benefits attributed to the NextGen® system are operational cost reductions through the use of real-time dynamic control of chemical energy and improved environmental conditions through reduced GHG emissions. Additionally, the implementation of Tenova’s Water Leak Detection Technology® has shown results as an effective tool for operators to identify in real-time the presence of water during both reducing and oxidizing conditions. This paper will include project details, trials and results and will also outline the latest hardware developments and multipoint capabilities

Oct 30, 2017

By Paul Riches

Today’s steel producers face the dual challenge of ensuring on-time delivery and ever demanding product requirements, while also running a lean operation. Every day the management of a long rolling plant requires continuous optimization of both operating and business practices. Imagine a long rolling facility, where individual pieces of equipment communicate with each other, where sensor information can be used not only for control purposes but to also monitor the condition of the equipment, where models are used to verify the process is within working limits and the equipment raises alerts to operators when it requires maintenance! Utilizing the ongoing evolution in technology though data collection, communication, internet of things, control techniques and smart sensors, there is now more information available than ever before. The collection and analysis of this information will both advance control and monitoring of plant performance; revolutionizing long rolling mill plants worldwide and optimizing the entire value chain, along with improved and more flexible production.

Oct 30, 2017

By Li Shanqing, Xu Jianghua, Li Hongmei, Huang Peijie

Cold rolled high strength steel are playing a very important role in reducing automobile weight for energy saving and environment protection. In recent year, more and more high strength steel were manufacturing in steel company. But there are some problems in the cold rolling process for high strength steel products. Periodic thickness deviation especially in strip head or tail is an important one in these problems. In this paper, the reason of periodic thickness deviation was analysed and a new AGC algorithm called Property FFC for high strength steel in tandem cold rolling was developed. The application of this new algorithm shows that it can reduce the thickness deviation.

Oct 1, 2019

By Carolina Gomes Dias Ribeiro

The modern composite materials, especially those reinforced with synthetic fibers such as glass and carbon, have been used since last century to attend the demands required by most technological fields, from home appliances to aerospace. Natural fibers composites with biodegradable polymer matrices are considered environmentally friendly materials and currently accepted as possible substitutes for synthetic composites. These green composites can be safely discarded or composted at the end of their life without harm to the environment. Another alternative for synthetic composites is to apply natural lignocellulosic fibers as reinforcement of conventional polymer matrices and already used in the automobile industry. In addition to the environmental and societal advantages of the green composites, the lignocellulosic fiber reinforced conventional polymer composite also has economical and technical advantages. In the case of a fiber collected as a waste, the price of the composite can be considerably lower than “fiberglass”. Furthermore, with high strength lignocellulosic fibers such as sisal, ramie and malva the specific strength of a composite may approach that of “fiberglass”. Therefore the objective of the present work is to investigate the mechanical behavior of polymer matrix composites reinforced with high volumes of natural malva fibers subjected to tensile stresses.

Aug 16, 2017

By Jean Viana Bahia, Antônio Adel dos Santos, Vicente Tadeu Lopes Buono

During cold rolling of Cr-Mo alloyed DP steel, considerable oscillation of thickness may occur. The literature points out that such occurrence is due to non-uniform cooling of the coil after the hot rolling process. Since the austenite transformation in this steel continues after coiling, the microstructure and, consequently, mechanical properties are very susceptible to natural variations in cooling rates associated with distinct positions of the coil. The influence of coil cooling conditions on thickness oscillation during cold rolling was evaluated in this work by using both industrial experiments and dilatometer tests. It was verified that an industrial coil presented large variation of mechanical properties associated with its heterogeneous microstructure. Consequently, thickness oscillation occurred during cold rolling. Dilatometer tests simulating hot run-out table and coil cooling showed that the austenite transformation is very slow under small cooling rates that occur after coiling. Thus, the slow transformation rate makes the coil very susceptible to environmental conditions around it during its natural cooling and is responsible for variation in mechanical properties of the coil. To ensure the formation of a more homogeneous microstructure in the whole coil, it is necessary either to make use of technologies that improves the cooling uniformity or to adjust the steel alloy design. The latter alternative has been done with relative success by using conceptions with lower amounts of Cr and Mo.

Oct 1, 2019

By Luis Armando Espitia

AISI 410 martensitic stainless steel specimens were low temperature plasma nitrided at 400°C in a mixture of 75%N2:25%H2, during 20 h. Active screen technic was used to avoid any edge effect The nitrided case is composed of expanded martensite (a’N) and e-Fe3N iron nitride, whilst chromium nitride precipitation was avoided. Surface hardness reached 1275 HV0.01. The transverse microhardness profile shows a gentle hardness gradient with a NHT nitrided case depth of 28 µm. Nanoindentation tests were carried out in order to assess the hardness (H), the Young modulus (E), the H/E and H3/E2 ratios and the elastic recovery (We) of both nitrided and non-nitrided specimens. The cavitation erosion mass losses were measured as a function of exposure time. The results showed a decrease of 27 times of the mass loss compared to the non-nitride specimens. Wear rate decreased from 2.56 mg/h for the non-nitrided condition to 0.085 mg/h after nitriding. The increment in the elastic recovery and the higher hardness values are responsible for the greater cavitation erosion resistance exhibited by the expanded martensite. Such results showed that low temperature plasma nitriding and the formation of expanded martensite are effective to increase cavitation erosion resistance of AISI 410 stainless steel.

Jul 31, 2018

By Davidson Marcos de Oliveira, Antonio Adel dos Santos, Vicente Tadeu Buono

The benefits of using the controlled rolling process followed by accelerated cooling (TMCP), currently used in the main rolling mills in the world are already well known and metallurgically based. The need to obtain mechanical properties with a high degree of homogeneity means that in some situations the ends of the rolled material are discarded, negatively affecting the metallic yield of the process. Therefore, this work focused on the determination of the mechanical properties variation at the ends of thick plates processed by TMCP of steels for application in oil and gas pipelines, in order to map the extent of these differences and to correlate them with the microstructure obtained, the profiles of temperature and cooling rates in these regions. To perform the work, two slabs of the studied material were rolled, and the temperature profile was recorded along the plate in the controlled rolling and accelerated cooling processes. The ends of the material were sampled in sections at every 100 mm and subjected to tensile test, hardness and the Charpy V-notch impact test, as well as dilatometry and microstructure evaluations. For the used process conditions, the results indicated the formation of a banded microstructure, basically consisting of polygonal ferrite and bainite, occasionally containing small fractions of perlite. The mechanical properties in the top and the base were higher than the values found in the plate middle, justified by the microstructure found. The work allowed understanding the relationship between the mechanical properties, microstructures and process conditions at the ends, helping the team to improve the process in order to result in a high degree of homogeneity of the product and, thus, lead to optimization of the metallic yield.

Oct 1, 2019

By Davide Onesti

Electrode regulation is the technology at the heart of the AC and DC Electric Arc Furnace. As such, in the last decade it underwent continuous improvement to maximize the EAF performances, in terms of process efficiency, machine utilization and operator safety. Given this background, Danieli Automation’s efforts in the field of electrode regulation have been focused on fast response to scrap cave-in, compensation of supply variations, automatic resonance detection, transformer protection, dynamic regulation of the electrical and chemical set-points, coordination and control of slagging and foaming agents, arc irradiance supervision. An extensive analysis of operator utilization and feedback was also carried out to develop an innovative system HMI. In this field, the choice of the variables shown to the user is the key aspect to allow a prompt process evaluation by the operator, who can refer to a condensed set of useful data. This paper will describe the innovative features and embedded models of the electrode regulation module (Q-REG+) and the supervision HMI, together with the effects of their application on EAF process efficiency and system usability.

Oct 30, 2017

By Andreas Jungbauer

Two Arvedi ESP plants going into operation in 2015 will allow a Chinese steel producer to better serve the extremely attractive local and export markets for high-quality, thin-gauge strip products. The energy consumption and the related costs are reduced by up to 45% compared to conventional casting and rolling processes. This also means a major reduction in CO2 emissions. The new plants are designed for an annual production capacity of 2 x 2.55 million tons of high-quality, ultra-thin, hot-rolled strip products with widths of up to 1,600 mm and thicknesses down to 0.8 mm. The project scope also features a comprehensive training and assistance package for plant start-up and operations by personnel from the existing ESP plant at Acciaieria Arvedi SpA, Italy. The plant setup, the trainings and assistance program as well as latest results from the ESP plant in Italy will be presented. While this project is under execution three further ESP lines have been ordered by the same customer summing up now to five ESP lines at the same location.

Jul 30, 2018

By Karl Berger

The paper gives a comprehensive overview of the historical development of various metal rolling technologies and also describes the influence to industrial and socio-economic developments. The rolling of steel, in particular of rails, beams, rebar, strip and plate has enabled the large scale transport and travel, the building of bridges and buildings, the manufacturing of ships and cars. All this has changed the face of the world significantly. Further the paper approaches technological highlights in the design, manufacturing, drive and control of modern mills and the various types developed to create industrial economic units for the different markets and customers’ requirements. An outlook of future challenges is as well discussed in the paper. Various solution approaches for the rolling technologies, from continuous improvement of existing plants to more radical new concepts like endless rolling, near net-shape casting and rolling are approached. A positive conclusion is drawn that rolling technologies will remain a valuable area for engineers with scientific and economic challenges, but also a clear vision for positive contribution to further industrial and social development.

Jul 30, 2018

By Bi Zongyue, ZhangYongqing, NiuTao, Guo Aimin

Over the past twenty years, significant advances have been made in the field of microalloying steels and associated applications, among which one of the most successful application cases is development and application of heavy-gauge X80 coil with high temperature processing HTP practice used for China's Second West-East pipeline, the longest X80 pipe in the world. During this process, HTP design concept has been sucessfully applied to develop 18.4mm X80 coil with demanding low-temperature fracture toughness requirements. In the meanwhile, China's metallurgical workers have further optimized HTP design concept with the aid of powerful rolling mill and coiling equipment, and made it possible to develop 21.4mm X80 coil used for Russia-China East line. In the paper, we would simply review the development history of high-strength pipeline steels, and then give more priority to the fundamental points for sucessful development of 18.4mm X80 coil and SSAW pipe, which paved the way for subsequent development of 21.4mm X80 coil and SSAW pipe. Finally, we would present the test results of mass production and burst tests, and dispel the suspicion that SSAW pipes made of X80 coil are more qualified to resist ductile fracture.

Oct 1, 2019