Revolution and control of Fe-Al-Ti-O complex oxide inclusions in ultralow-carbon steel during refining process

Ultralow-carbon steel is an important material for automobile production. Titanium is usually added in this steel grade to form a precipitant and improve the deep drawing property of the steel. However, due to the deoxidation capacity of Ti, Ti addition will directly generate Ti-bearing oxide inclusions instead of the precipitant. To reduce the amount of Ti-bearing oxide inclusions, samples were collected during the RH refining based on the basic oxygen furnace-Ruhrstahl-Heraeus reactor-continuous casting (BOF-RH-CC) ultralow-carbon steel production process, and the oxygen content and inclusion characterization after Al addition and Ti addition were analyzed. The thermodynamics calculation software FactSage was adopted to calculate the Fe-Al-Ti-O inclusion stability phase diagram. The results show that the Al₂O₃ inclusion usually acts as the nucleation point of the Ti-bearing oxide inclusion, which wraps the Al₂O₃ inclusion to form the Al-Ti-O complex inclusion. To avoid the generation of the Ti-bearing oxide inclusions, the mass fraction of dissolved Al in the molten steel should be greater than 0.01% when the Ti mass fraction is 0.1%. Furthermore, the generation and growth behavior of the Ti-bearing oxide inclusion were also studied. Based on the calculation of the growth rate and the comparison of the adhesion work of the Al₂O₃ inclusion and the Ti₂O₃ inclusion, it is concluded that the growth rate of Ti₂O₃ inclusion is greater than that of Al₂O₃ inclusion, and it is more difficult for Ti₂O₃ inclusions to collide with each other and to be removed at 1600℃. Therefore, the generation of Ti-bearing oxide inclusions should be strictly controlled to improve the removal rate of oxide inclusions in ultralow-carbon steels.