Jean-Pierre Bellot

Plasma diagnostic by emission spectroscopy during vacuum arc remelting

The plasma produced during vacuum arc remelting of a Zircaloy4 electrode has been investigated by optical emission spectroscopy. Spatial variations of plasma emission along the arc axis has been measured with a specific apparatus consisting of nine aligned optic fibres. The plasma consists of zirconium atoms, of singly and doubly charged zirconium ions and of chromium atoms. The non-observation of emissions of tin and iron particles, which are, with chromium, the three main alloy components of Zircaloy4, suggests that the concentrations of these two species in the plasma are negligibly small. Distribution temperatures of atomic and ionic species of the order of 1 eV and high ionization degree of the plasma (greater than 70%) have been determined. The similar decay of the line intensities of the various species with increasing axial distance from the cathode surface indicates that the plasma composition remains approximately unchanged within the interelectrode region. Synthesis of the spectroscopic results has shown that the emission of vapour into the plasma cannot be accounted for by a mechanism of metal volatilization from the cathodic and anodic liquid surfaces only. It also involves emission mechanisms occurring in the cathode spot region, like the expulsion of metal droplets which volatilize or the ejection of particles.

Modelling of plasma generation and expansion in a vacuum arc: application to the vacuum arc remelting process

As part of a complete theoretical description of the behaviour of the electric arc in the vacuum arc remelting process, a model has been developed for the column of plasma generated by a single cluster of cathode spots. The model combines a kinetic approach, taking into account the formation of the plasma in the cathodic region, and a hydrodynamic approach, describing the expansion of the plasma in the vacuum between the electrodes. The kinetic model is based on a system of Boltzmann-Vlasov-Poisson equations and uses a particle-type simulation procedure, combining the PIC (particle in cell) and FPM (finite point set method) methods. In the two-dimensional hydrodynamic model, the plasma is assimilated to a mixture of two continuous fluids (the electrons and the ions), each described by a system of coupled transport equations. Finally, a simplified method has been defined for calculating the electric current density and the energy flux density transmitted by the plasma to the anode. The results of the numerical simulation presented are consistent with a certain number of experimental data available in the literature. In particular, the model predicts a percentage of the electric power of the cluster transmitted to the anode (25%) in good agreement with the value indicated in the literature.

Coupling of CFD and PBE Calculations to Simulate the Behavior of an Inclusion Population in a Gas-Stirring Ladle

Gas-stirring ladle treatment of liquid metal has been pointed out for a long time as the processing stage is mainly responsible for the inclusion population of specialty steels. A steel ladle is a complex three-phase reactor, where strongly dispersed inclusions are transported by the turbulent liquid metal/bubbles flow. We have coupled a population balance model with CFD in order to simulate the mechanisms of transport, aggregation, flotation, and surface entrapment of inclusions. The simulation results, when applied to an industrial gas-stirring ladle operation, show the efficiency of this modeling approach and allow us to compare the respective roles of these mechanisms on the inclusion removal rate. The comparison with literature reporting data emphasizes the good prediction of deoxidating rate of the ladle. On parallel, a simplified zero-dimensional model has been set-up incorporating the same kinetics law for the aggregation rate and all the removal mechanisms. A particular attention has been paid on the averaging method of the hydrodynamics parameters introduced in the flotation and kinetics kernels.

TEM Characterization of a Titanium Nitride (TiN) Inclusion in a Fe-Ni-Co Maraging Steel

A TEM observation of a TiN inclusion associated to a spinel (MgAl2O4) and calcium sulfide germs is reported. It shows an orientation relationship between these three phases, indicating an epitaxial growth of the TiN over the spinel and CaS. This observation strengthens the hypothesis of a heterogeneous nucleation of TiN particles during the solidification of a maraging steel.

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Deformation of a Liquid Aluminum Free Surface Covered by an Oxide Layer During Induction Melting

In an induction furnace, as a result of electromagnetic forces, the free surface of a liquid aluminum bath deforms and takes the form of a dome. The oxide layer that forms spontaneously on the free surface of aluminum melts may also influence the deformation by exerting an additional friction force on the metal. A non-intrusive experimental technique—Structured Light Fringe Projection—was used to measure the complete surface deformation and its fluctuations, for a varying set of operating parameters—inductor current intensity and initial liquid metal filling level inside the crucible. For an axisymmetric geometry, numerical simulations were carried out to calculate in a single framework: (i) the electromagnetic forces using the A–V formulation, (ii) the free surface deformation using the Volume of Fluid method, and (iii) the turbulent stirring of the metal using a RANS-based k–ω model. The friction force due to the oxide layer was modeled by imposing a pseudo-wall condition on the free surface, which makes the interfacial velocity very small compared to the average liquid metal pool velocity. A marked impact on the dome height due to applied friction force is observed. Finally, comparisons between the predicted and measured domes are presented.

Cooling of a Rotating Cylinder by a Subcooled Planar Jet - Influence of the Surface Velocity on Boiling Regime

Cooling from impinging jet is nearly compulsory in steel industry processing especially in Run Out Table processing and steel tube production because of the high heat transfer provided by the boiling of the subcooled water jet. As far as metallurgical phase transformations, residual stresses and deformations in the workpiece are concerned, the temperature drop during cooling must be controlled thanks to a full understanding of the heat transfer mechanisms. One of the main characteristic using jet impingement is that the transition boiling regime may exist for very high superheat and thus the Leidenfrost temperature is higher than in pool boiling; consequently, boiling curves generally have a particular shape in the transition boiling regime which is usually called “shoulder of flux”. In this study, an innovative experimental quenching device has been used for analyzing the effect of the wall velocity of the surface to be cooled on the boiling curves (i.e. heat transfer) and we especially point out that the “shoulder of flux” (i.e. transition boiling regime) is strongly dependent on the surface to jet velocity ratio (r*). We found that a very small increase of the wall velocity has a high influence on shoulder of flux collapse.

Modeling the Titanium Nitride (TiN) Germination and Growth during the Solidification of a Maraging Steel

A maraging steel containing nitrogen and titanium is considered. As solidification proceeds, the segregation accounts for an increase of Ti and N mass fraction in the liquid phase. This eventually leads to the formation of TiN if the supersaturation is high enough. A model has been developed to calculate the creation and evolution of the TiN distributions in both phases. Microsegregation is modeled using the lever rule, while the kinetics of precipitation is mainly driven by the supersaturation of the liquid bath. The model enables one to investigate the competition between segregation and precipitation regarding the solute concentrations and the shape of the particle size distributions in the liquid and solid phases. A parametric study on the solidification time reveals the existence of a maximal inclusion size. It also confirms the influence of the initial composition on the final size of TiN particles.

Inclusion Behavior During the Electron Beam Button Melting Test

The high mechanical performance of alloys developed for the manufacture of turbine disks depend upon the size and the number density of the inclusions. The electron beam button method has been practiced since the 1980s as a technique to quantify the cleanliness of the superalloys as well as to identify the nature and the size of the inclusions. The technique involves melting the sample into a hemispherical water-cooled crucible and the low density inclusions (mainly oxides) are concentrated by a combination of Marangoni and buoyancy forces into an area at the top surface of the button referred to as the raft. We have experimentally studied the behavior of oxide inclusions in special steels using both high definition video and infrared cameras. We have observed the inversion of the Marangoni effect due to the presence of sulfur, which leads to a positive temperature coefficient of the surface tension. A mathematical modeling has been carried out to simulate the turbulent fluid flow associated with the temperature field in the metallic pool of the button. The surface temperature profile has been successfully compared with the measured data. A post-processor numerical tool calculates the inclusion trajectories taking into account the turbulent fluctuation velocity by a stochastic approach. Hence, the behavior of a population of inclusions has been statistically studied, and the dependence of the capture efficiency on the inclusion size has been analyzed.

Toward Better Control of Inclusion Cleanliness in a Gas Stirred Ladle Using Multiscale Numerical Modeling

The industrial objective of lowering the mass of mechanical structures requires continuous improvement in controlling the mechanical properties of metallic materials. Steel cleanliness and especially control of inclusion size distribution have, therefore, become major challenges. Inclusions have a detrimental effect on fatigue that strongly depends both on inclusion content and on the size of the largest inclusions. Ladle treatment of liquid steel has long been recognized as the processing stage responsible for the inclusion of cleanliness. A multiscale modeling has been proposed to investigate the inclusion behavior. The evolution of the inclusion size distribution is simulated at the process scale due to coupling a computational fluid dynamics calculation with a population balance method integrating all mechanisms, i.e., flotation, aggregation, settling, and capture at the top layer. Particular attention has been paid to the aggregation mechanism and the simulations at an inclusion scale with fully resolved inclusions that represent hydrodynamic conditions of the ladle, which have been specifically developed. Simulations of an industrial-type ladle highlight that inclusion cleanliness is mainly ruled by aggregation. Quantitative knowledge of aggregation kinetics has been extracted and captured from mesoscale simulations. Aggregation efficiency has been observed to drop drastically when increasing the particle size ratio.

Kinetics of Evaporation of Alloying Elements under Vacuum: Application to Ti alloys in Electron Beam Melting

Abstract Vacuum metallurgical processes such as the electron beam melting are highly conducive to volatilization. In titanium processing, it concerns the alloying elements which show a high vapor pressure with respect to titanium matrix, such as Al. Two different experimental approaches using a laboratory electron beam furnace have been developed for the estimation of volatilization rate and activity coefficient of Al in Ti64. The first innovative method is based on the deposition rate of Al on Si wafers located at different angles θ above the liquid bath. We found that a deposition according to a cos2(π/2−θ) law describes well the experimental distribution of the weight of the deposition layer. The second approach relies on the depletion of aluminum in the liquid pool at two separate times of the volatilization process. Both approaches provide values of the Al activity coefficient at T=1, 860 °C in a fairly narrow range [0.044–0.0495], in good agreement with the range reported in the literature. Furthermore numerical simulation of the Al behavior in the liquid pool reveals (in the specific case of electron beam button melting) a weak transport resistance in the surface boundary layer.