Microstructure evolution in cold rolled strips during continuous annealing - modelling and simulation

The empirical optimization of technologies for continuous annealing of cold rolled strips is very time, material and cost intensive. The properties of cold rolled strips demanded by the customer are adjustable only in relatively closely limited temperature - time regimes. Therefore, it is a complex task to increase the performance of continuous annealing furnaces without disadvantages for the product quality. This problem can be solved by nume-rical modelling the microstructure evolution in the cold rolled strip during continuous annealing combined with experimental simulation of the annealing process. At the Institut für Werkstoffwissenschaft, Technische Universität Dresden, in co-operation with EKO Stahl GmbH, Eisenhüttenstadt, a computer program signed as TFB was deve-loped. It is suited for modelling and simulating the recrystallization kinetics in cold rolled strips during continuous annealing. Furthermore, this program can be used for optimizing the annealing technology. For example, for IF steel the pre-sent paper demonstrates to what extent the performance of a continuous annealing furnace can be increased. Further results concern the improvement of the microstructure of the high strength microalloyed steel ZStE 380 Z by optimizing the annealing technology by means of experimental simulation