Study on the clogging behaviour of SEN during continuous casting of Ti-IF steels with different Ti contents

For the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) samples obtained during continuous casting of Ti-IF steels with different Ti contents, the characteristics of the SEN deposits were systematically studied using X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). The cleanliness of various Ti-IF steel slabs was analyzed using automatic scanning microscope, SEM-EDS, and oxygen/nitrogen analyzer. The experimental results show that the nozzle deposits for the Ti-IF steel with high Ti content can be divided into three layers. However, for the Ti-IF steel with low Ti content, it consists only of two layers. As the Ti content in the Ti-IF steel increases, the Ti element in the nozzle deposits aggregating significantly, and the cleanliness of Ti-IF steel slabs worsens gradually, and the possibility and severity of the nozzle clogging also increase accordingly. Therefore, two different clogging mechanisms for Ti-IF steels with various Ti contents were obtained in this paper.