Electromagnetic measurements of steel phase transformations

This thesis describes the development of electromagnetic sensors to measure the phase transformation in steel as it cools from the hot austenite phase to colder ferritic based phases. The work initially involved investigating a variety of sensing configurations including ac excited coils, C-core arrangements and the adaptation of commercial eddy current proximity sensors. Finally, two prototype designs were built and tested on a hot strip mill. The first of these, the T-meter was based on a C-shaped permanent magnet with a Gaussmeter measuring the magnetic field at the pole ends. Laboratory tests indicated that it could reliably detect the onset of transformation. However, the sensor was sensitive to both the steel properties and the position of the steel. To overcome this, an eddy current sensor was incorporated into the final measurement head. The instrument gave results which were consistent with material property variations, provided the lift off variations were below 3Hz. The results indicated that for a grade 1916 carbon- manganese steel, the signal variation was reduced from 37% to 2%, and the resulting output was related to the steel property variations. The second of these prototypes was based on a dc electromagnetic E-core, with Hall probes in each of the three poles. 'Cold' calibration tests were used to decouple the steel and the lift-off. The results indicated that there was an error of 3-4% ferrite/mm at high ferrite fractions. At lower fractions the error was higher due to the instrument’s insensitivity to lift-off. The resulting output again showed a relationship with varying steel strip properties. ft was also shown that a finite element model could be calibrated to experimental results for a simple C-core geometry such that the output was sensitive to 0.2% of the range. This is required to simulate the sensor to resolve to 10% ferrite

Imaging the transformation of hot strip steel using magnetic techniques.

In the production of steel strip, the temperature distribution and cooling rates along the mill run-out table have a significant effect on the steel microstructure and hence on final material properties, e.g., yield strength, tensile strength, and ductility. Noncontacting optical temperature sensors are typically used to implement feedback control of cooling, but water spray and surface emissivity irregularities can adversely affect these sensors. Ideally, the control of cooling path should account for the progress of dynamic transformation at required points rather than the strip temperature alone. There are several reports describing the use of magnetic sensors to monitor transformation. These sensors exploit the change in the electromagnetic properties as the steel progresses through transformation, for example the austenitic phase is paramagnetic and the ferritic phase is ferromagnetic below the Curie point. Previous work has concentrated on the operation and design of individual transformation sensors. This paper now describes the use of an array of electromagnetic sensors to image the progression of transformation along a sample steel block on a pilot scale industrial mill. The paper will describe the underlying physical principles, the design of the system, and present images showing the progress of transformation along one surface of the sample