Solidification behaviour and microstructural development of ironbased alloys under conditions pertinent to strip casting - 200 series stainless steels

The castability and microstructures produced from strip casting simulations of three compositions in the 200 series stainless steels have been examined. The nucleation density was similar for all three compositions.The as-cast microstructure showed very fine austenite grains of 10–20 μm in width. Retained delta ferrite was observed in the inter-dendritic regions, and was likely to be stabilised by the segregation of Cr into these regions. An analysis of the crystallography expected of different solidification sequences is presented, but a strict adherence to the Kurdjumov-Sachs orientation relationship was not found in these samples.