Leicester – Tata Steel collaboration

Hongbiao Dong1, Shuwen Wen2

1. University of Leicester 2. Tata Steel

HPC Midlands Launch Event

March 20, 2013

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Tata Steel: a multinational steel company, subsidiary of Tata

Fortune 500 company Top 10 global steelmaker: production

capacity 28 Mt/a Manufacturing operations

in 26 countries

Commercial presence inover 50 countries

80 000 employees

Listed in Mumbai

JamshedpurIndia

Port TalbotUK

IjmuidenThe Netherlands

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Locations Tata Steel Group RD&T

UK total 350 people

IJmuiden 445 people

India total 450 people

JamshedpurIndia R&D

IJTC

TTC

STC

AEG

TTC: Teesside Technology Centre

STC: Swinden Technology Centre (Rotherham)

AEG: Automotive Engineering Group (Coventry)

IJTC: IJmuiden Technology Centre

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Tata Steel R, D&T Swinden Technology Centre (STC)

• Processes, Products and Applications

• Departments in:

• Iron making (TTC & IJTC)• Steel making & continuous casting• Steel Metallurgy• Iron making• Long Product Rolling• Rolling Metal Strip• Industrial & Construction• Environment

Rotherham S60 3AR, UK

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Department of Engineering

Top 200 universities worldwide*

Mechanics of Materials Group at Leicester

• At the interface between Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering.

• Research by integrating experimental and computational technologies.  

• Our computational work benefits from ALICE and East Midlands HPC – ALICE: a new High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster at Leicester

Mechanics of Materials Group at Leicester

• At the interface between Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering.

• Research by integrating experimental and computational technologies.  

• Our computational work benefits from ALICE and East Midlands HPC – ALICE: a new High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster at Leicester

• Multi-scale, Multi-physics Materials Process Modelling

• Casting, Welding, Heat Treatment

• Microstructure Evolution during Processing and In-use of High Temperature Materials

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What Can Materials Process Modelling Do ?

To visualize process routes

What are the physical processes occurring during processing (casting, welding, heat treatment and coating) ?

What are the optimum dimensions and geometry of components with regard to processing?

Can numerical modelling be used to answer the above questions?

Can we move away from empirical choices of casting, welding /HT/coating processes to one which is designed and optimised?

Multi-scale Multi-physical Nature of Materials Processing

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melting/solidification interface

heat conduction

workpiece A workpiece Bweld pool

J B

free surface

anode (+) marangoni

heat flux

cathode (-)radiation

Plasma gas drag

(a)

(b)

(c)

300 m300 m

1nm

3nm

crystal growth, element segregation

solute diffusion latent heat

grain boundary segregation

stresselastic/plastic-deformationintermetallic

structure defects

(d)

Energetics and kinetics of

interface, bonding strength

Crystal A Crystal B /Melt

arc pressure

filler wire (electrode)

scale (time/length)

quantum

(10-12s / 10-10 to 10-9m)thermodynamic data;

force fields, including H-alloy interaction;interfacial properties

Inter-atomic potentials

atomic arrangement at interfaces

classical

(10-7s / 10-9 to 10-8m)

interface structurethermodynamic properties of

solid-liquid & solid-solid interfaces

chemistry;crystal orientation; stress

nano-micro

(10-3s / 10-9 to 10-3m)

dendrite kinetics; solidification interface;

microscopic morphology

grain

(10-3 to 101s / 10-4 to 10-

2m)boundary conditions;

solidification fronts; mushy zone permeability

chemistry; flow pattern; thermal field

models

diffusion of hydrogen,

cohesive zone model

microstructure & chemistry, thermodynamics of

fracture/ defect growth, residual stress,

ab-initio quantum mechanical

molecular dynamics

phase field crystal phase field

grain structure model

computational fluid dynamics finite element analysis

macro

(102s / 10-3 to 10-1m)

structural integrity,

hot cracking +

hydrogen embrittlement

alloy-specific thermodynamics &

kinetics

Computational thermo-dynamics

latent heat; enthalpy change; grain structure; local chemistry; thermal field and local gradients

Models

Macro-scale: In-situ Observation of Internal Flow in Weld Pool

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remotely controlled metal active gas (MAG)

Return current

BeamSource Detector

welding head

10mm thicknesssteel plate

Insulating plate

Beamline sample stage

Lincoln Powertec 231C

welding machine

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Return current

BeamSource Detector

welding head

10mm thicknesssteel plate

Insulating plate

Beamline sample stage

Lincoln Powertec 231C

welding machine

single streamlines of flow

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(a) over 50 mini seconds

(b) over 120 mini seconds

(X-ray radiography)

Return current

BeamSource Detector

welding head

10mm thicknesssteel plate

Insulating plate

Beamline sample stage

Lincoln Powertec 231C

welding machine

(a)

(b)

flow trace over 0.1 s

advancing melt pool

electrode

solidified joint

solidified joint

flow trace over 0.23 s

advancing melt pool

electrode

Modelling work to analyse the internal flow

• The quantitative analysis of the fluid flow has been proven difficult, although progress has been made in analysing the velocity data.

• This is because different forces (plasma and arc pressure, Marangoni and Lorentz forces) act on fluid dynamics in weld pool.

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With Lorentz force driven flow (S=0%) Without Lorentz force driven flow (S=0%)

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Solid-liquid interface fluctuation

System: Pure Fe (100)[010] planeAtoms: 43,200System size: 17.545 1.7545 17.545 nmTime: 1ns, dt=5fs

Potential Impact

• Being able to predict and control properties using HPC during welding, and hence to produce welds with radically improved properties will certainly help improve the productivity of pipeline products and the integrity of the constructed gas and oil pipelines by using new alloys in conjunction with advanced technologies.

• The technique has been taking forward by industry to develop advanced welding technology for new welded pipelines, the construction time is usually 2 to 3 years in an European leading steel-making industry, during which welding development is a major issue.

• The overall cost involved in the development is several million Euros. When these pipeline products are in use, the cost for the construction of a pipeline is often up to several billion Euros and the integrity of the pipeline has huge implications for the local energy supply and hence economic prosperity.

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With the advances in HPC & processing modelling, Changes can be made in manufacturing?

 

Acknowledgement

EPSRC, the European Commission, the Royal Society , Tata Steel, Rolls-Royce, TWI,

for research funding

Colleagues and PhD students at University of Leicester, Loughborough University for providing information in

this presentation