Good surface quality is essential for the twin roll cast stainless steel strip to be directly cold-rolled. Thus, surface quality of AISI 304 stainless steel is one of the main problems for the twin roll strip casting process to be put into commercial production. The surface defects commonly appeared in the as-cast strip of twin roll process may include longitudinal and transverse cracks or wrinkles as well as unevenness which is mainly caused by gas trapping and surface vibration of meniscus between the two rolls.
In this study, a modeling software was applied to simulate the flow behavior of molten pool at quasi-steady state in inclined twin roll casting and to investigate the relationship between flow characteriatics and surface quality of the produced thin strip. The flow characteristics was drawn from the calculated flow patterns and then correlated to the surface quality of thin strips produced in an experimental caster under the same casting condition as the calculations. Through this procedures, several correlations were then found. First, the surface wrinkles appeared on the thin strip when the pool levels were low. The problem was improbed with a higher pool level due to less flow violence nor meniscus fluctuation. Second, the recirculation with a large vortex occurring around the triple intersection point of the roll/melt/air three phases was the main cause for the slag and/or dross trapping. Third, by using a higher roll angle along with an inclined feeding position nearer to the lower roll, a much table flow on the meniscus surface could be obtained.