Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187

Analysis and prevention of side cracking phenomenon occurring

during hot rolling of thick low-carbon steel plates
Byoungchul Hwang, Han Sang Lee, Yang Gon Kim, Sunghak Lee ∗
Center for Advanced Aerospace Materials, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790-784, Republic of Korea

Received in revised form 5 April 2005; accepted 18 April 2005

Abstract

In this study, a microstructural investigation was conducted on the side cracking phenomenon occurring in thick low-carbon steel plates
during hot rolling. Particular emphasis was placed on the role of iron oxides and ferrite–pearlite band structure in the side cracking. Detailed
microstructural analyses of the cracked region showed that the ferrite–pearlite band structure in the side region was considerably slanted to
the surface, while that in the central region was parallel to the surface. Small cracks were often observed when the iron oxide layer formed
by inhomogeneous oxidization along the slanted ferrite–pearlite band structure in the side region within 30 mm from the plate edge was
intruded into the interior after hot rolling. In addition to these small cracks, a few large cracks were also found when some protrusions formed
on the plate surface were decarburized, folded and then intruded into the interior. Based on these findings, the parallel arrangement of the
ferrite–pearlite band structure in the side region by the appropriate control of the hot rolling process and the minimization of the iron oxide
formation by the minimized time exposed to high temperatures were suggested in order to prevent or minimize the side cracking.
© 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Side cracking; Low-carbon steel plate; Hot rolling; Iron oxide layer; Pearlite band structure

1. Introduction
When classifying rolled steel products, those thicker than
6 mm are generally called “plates”, which are then clas-
sified in many types, depending on strength, condition of
side cutting, alloy composition, surface treatment, processing
method, application and so on [1]. Depending on the condi-
tion of side cutting, there are two kinds of plates, i.e., mill edge
plate (no-trimming plate) in which only the top and tail parts
are cut, but not the side parts and slit edge plate (trimming
plate) whose side parts are cut by gas or a machine. The side
cracking often occurring on the surface of the side parts along
the rolling direction after hot rolling significantly decreases
the productivity of plates. Presently, when side cracks occur
on the plate surface, side trimming is applied, or the cracked
region is removed by whole-wide cutting. The side cracking
problem is also alleviated by scarfing slabs before hot rolling.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 54 279 2140; fax: +82 54 279 2399.
E-mail address: shlee@postech.ac.kr (S. Lee).
However, since the scarfing treatment itself affects the pro-
ductivity, it is better to be omitted. In some mill plants, this
side cracking phenomenon is not only minimized, but mill
edge plates are mass produced by applying manufacturing
technology of trimming free plates (TFP), leading to reduced
production costs.
It is also known that the side cracking considerably varies
with the kind of slabs. For instance, low-quality slabs expe-
rience serious cracking problems, whereas the problem is
much less frequent in the high-quality slabs. The reasons
for the side cracking can be largely divided into one due to
materials themselves or the other case from processing con-
ditions. With respect to materials, cracks can initiate when
microvoids formed along grain boundaries due to volume
change at the time of phase transformation from austenite to
ferrite during hot rolling are coalesced [2,3]. Side or corner
cracks can also occur when microcracks formed on slabs are
corroded by oxidization during reheating and are grown large
during hot rolling. In terms of processing conditions, when
reheating or hot rolling conditions are not appropriate for the
steel plates, cracking problems arise. Previous studies on the

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2005.04.045
178 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187
Table 1
Chemical composition and dimensions of the slabs and steel plates used in this study
Hot rolling Slab T Slab W Chemical composition (wt.%)
process (mm) (mm)
C Mn Si
A 248 1580 0.15 1.40 0.26
B 250 1580 0.15 1.37 0.29
side cracking phenomenon which significantly reduces the
productivity of steel plates are scarce. Particularly, the rea-
son for the cracking of 1–2% frequency in high-quality slabs
is poorly understood. Therefore, the formation mechanism
of side cracks and the need for presenting ways to prevent
them require imminent attention in view of the productivity
of plates, labor cost, energy reduction and quality improve-
ment.
In the present study, microstructural analysis was con-
ducted on the side cracking phenomenon occurring during
hot rolling of thick low-carbon steel plates to elucidate the
crack formation mechanism. Based on the analysis results,
correlation between microstructural factors and hot rolling
conditions was investigated to present ways to prevent or min-
imize the occurrence of side cracks. The kind of slabs and hot
rolling conditions were varied, and the resulting microstruc-
tures were investigated in order to discuss the effects of
microstructural factors on the side cracking.
2. Experimental
The slabs used in this study were 250 mm thick, and man-
ufactured at Dillinger Hütte, Dillingen, Germany, by contin-
uous casting, and the chemical compositions and dimensions
of the slabs and plates for the processes ‘A’ and ‘B’ are
shown in Table 1. Generally, the carbon content has no sig-
nificant influence on the hot ductility of steels. However, it
is well established that susceptibility to cracking occurs in
the carbon range from 0.10 to 0.16% because of the influ-
ence of the peritectic reaction in producing large austenite
grains, together with concomitant poor ductility [4–6]. The
final thickness of the plates was decided to be 15–20 mm at
which the side cracking was reported to occur frequently. In
hot-rolled strips or thin plates (<16 mm), side cracks result-
ing from slab cracks are less prevalent as the crack depth
becomes shallower with increasing rolling reduction. The
size and chemical composition of the slabs and plates used
in both processes do not show much difference. So as to
examine the effects of scarfing before hot rolling on the side
cracking, the two slabs were equally divided into eight parts,
Table 2
Reheating conditions
Hot rolling Preheating furnace Heating furnace no.1 Heating furnace no.2 Heating furnace no.3 Homogenization
process temperature (◦ C) temperature (◦ C) temperature (◦ C)
A 621 944 1211
B 1020 1150 1173
Plate T Plate W Plate L
(mm) (mm) (mm)
P S Al V Ti Cu
0.019 0.001 0.04 0.003 0.001 0.029 18.94 2645 16816
0.012 0.001 0.05 0.001 0.002 0.013 17.50 2692 20383
and both sides of four parts out of the eight were scarfed.
This was to eliminate any possible defects that might not be
visible from the surface but present inside the slabs. For con-
venience, those scarfed are referred to as specimens ‘1–4’
following the alphabet of ‘A’ or ‘B’ indicating the process,
while those non-scarfed are referred to as specimens ‘5–8’.
Observation of the scarfed slab surface revealed excel-
lent surface condition without visible defects. To observe
any possible microcracks present inside the slabs, the cor-
ner and center regions of the scarfed slabs were cut, and the
interior was observed by an optical microscope. The eight
slab specimens in each process of A and B were cut again
into two parts, and the parts were put under hot rolling test
twice in each process of A and B. The rolling method used
in this study was a conventional rolling composed of both
rough rolling and finish rolling [7], and the detailed condi-
tions of reheating and hot rolling of the A and B processes are
listed in Tables 2 and 3. Comparison of the preheating condi-
tions of the A and B processes showed that the holding time
in a furnace in the B process (3 h and 55 min) was slightly
shorter than in the A process, since the furnace temperature
was kept relatively high and the preheating furnace temper-
ature abruptly increased to 1020 ◦ C. The holding time in the
A process was longer (4 h and 27 min), as the slab temper-
ature increased relatively slowly and the preheating furnace
temperature was 621 ◦ C. In the both A and B processes, the
rolling temperature was about the same, but the rolling load
in the B process was higher than that in the A process at
all passes. Since the rolling reduction during the final finish
rolling (passes 10, 11 and 12) of the B process was consid-
erably higher than that of the A process, finer grain size and
more excellent mechanical properties were expected.
A sketch of the side cracking spots and the orientation
is presented in Fig. 1(a), and a photograph showing typical
side cracks are shown in Fig. 1(b). Side cracks are observed
in both of the plate sides and in both the top and bottom
of the plate surface, and all the cracks are parallel to the
rolling direction. Most of them are fine thread-shaped small
cracks, but some are large cracks of sub-millimeters in depth.
Microstructures of the center and side regions of the cracked
plates were observed by an optical microscope and a scanning
Extraction Holding time in
temperature (◦ C) temperature (◦ C) temperature (◦ C furnace (min)
1223 1153 1149 267
– 1170 1109 235
 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187 179

Table 3
Detailed hot rolling conditions
Rolling strand of process 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Thickness (mm) A 223 195 177 158 138 116 94 70 48 33 26 21 17
B 231 211 190 168 146 122 100 82 65 49 34 25 17
Rolling reduction (%) A 10.8 12.6 9.2 10.7 12.7 15.9 19.0 25.5 31.4 31.3 21.2 19.2 19.0
B 7.6 8.7 10.0 11.6 13.1 16.4 18.0 18.0 20.7 24.6 30.6 26.5 32.0
Temperature (◦ C) A 1156 1151 1144 1141 1138 1134 1123 1118 1111 1096 1068 1040 1003
B 1126 1125 1116 1116 1115 1112 1101 1064 1065 1065 1058 1041 1005
Rolling force (tonnes) A 1364 1417 2038 2091 2206 2420 2764 3352 3644 3690 2932 2671 2524
B 1496 1585 3121 3227 3318 3410 3494 3593 3911 4510 4446 3348 2794
Initial slab thickness: 250 mm.

electron microscope (SEM, model; JSM-6330F, JEOL). The paratively examined to investigate the correlation between
cracked and non-cracked regions were cut perpendicular to microstructure and side cracking.
the rolling direction, and their microstructures were observed.
Inclusions of the cracked region were analyzed by energy
dispersion spectroscopy (EDS). The sectioned area of the
cracked region and that of the non-cracked region were com- 3. Results

3.1. Microstructure of slabs and plates

Low-magnification optical micrographs of the corner and

Fig. 1. (a) Sketch illustrating side cracks and orientations of the planes, and
(b) a photograph showing typical side cracks formed on the plate surface.
center regions of a slab are presented in Fig. 2(a) and (b),
showing that the slab is composed of typical solidified den-
drite structures. The dark region and the light region are
alternating. The former is the C–Mn-rich region, while the
latter is the C–Mn-depleted region. Cracks are hardly found
near the surface or interior of the slab. Ervasti and Stahlberg
[8] conducted a hot rolling simulation test using finite element
methods after introducing a large, 20 mm deep V-type verti-
cal crack in slabs of 220 mm in thickness. They reported that
all the cracks were eventually disappeared from the surface
after the cracks were changed to a Y pattern, despite minor
differences in the final closure depending on the rolling con-
ditions. Thus, it can be expected that a small number of small
cracks in the slabs used in this study would disappear after
hot rolling, and that they are not related to cracks in the side
region of plates.
Fig. 3(a–f) are optical micrographs of the surface and
the interior of the center and side regions of the non-
cracked plate, respectively. Irrespective of the location, all
the microstructures are typically composed of ferrite and
pearlite. Near the plate surface, a number of equiaxed grains
are observed (Fig. 3a–c), and the number of elongated grains
increases as it gets deeper into the interior (Fig. 3d–f). This
is because dynamic recrystallization proceeds on the plate
surface as the stored energy of the surface is higher than
that of the interior due to the lower temperature and heavier
rolling load on the surface [7,9,10]. Since the surface region
is exposed to high temperatures after hot rolling, decarbur-
ization readily occurs, and the amount of pearlite tends to be
smaller than that of the interior. Impurities such as MnS are
also observed, but their amount is negligible.
Though the arrangement of the ferrite–pearlite band struc-
ture is parallel to the surface both on the surface and in the
180 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187

Fig. 2. Optical micrographs of the (a) corner and (b) center regions of the slab used in the A hot rolling process.

Fig. 3. Optical micrographs of (a) and (d) the center region, (b) and (e) the region of 50 mm far from the side, and (c) and (f) the side region, showing the band
structure of ferrite and pearlite. The upper and lower parts of the figure indicate the surface and interior regions, respectively. Note the slope difference of the
band structure.
 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187 181

Table 4
Number of small side cracks formed on the plate surface
Specimena Number of small side cracks
Top part Tail part
A1 0, 0 0, 0
A2 0, 0 0, 0
A3 1, 0 0, 0
A4 0, 0 0, 0
A5 0, 3 0, 0
A6 0, 1 0, 0
A7 1, 0 0, 0
A8 0, 4 1, 0
B1 – –
B2 1, 0 1, 0
B3 1, 1 3, 1 (1)b
B4 5, 1 (1)b 1, 0
B5 1, 0 0, 0
B6 0, 1 1, 1
B7 0, 1 1, 0
B8 1, 1 1, 1
a Specimen numbers of 1–4 and 5–8 indicate the plate specimens rolled
from non-scarfed and scarfed slabs, respectively.
b Number of large side cracks.

Fig. 4. Optical micrographs of the non-cracked side region of the steel plates
rolled by the (a) A and (b) B processes.
interior of the center region (Fig. 3a, b, d and e), it is slanted
on the surface and in the interior of the side region (Fig. 3c
and f). This slanted pattern is observed down to about 30 mm
deep from the side. The slope of the ferrite–pearlite band
structure decreases as it gets deeper from the surface, and
becomes almost parallel to the surface near the 1/2 thickness.
Such a microstructural arrangement is observed, irrespective
of hot rolling conditions. Magnified optical micrographs of
the non-cracked side region of the plates rolled by the A and
B processes are shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b). Ferrite grains
of the plate rolled by the B process (Fig. 4b) are finer than
those of the plate rolled by the A process (Fig. 4a), and more
decarburization is observed on the plate surface rolled by the
B process.
3.2. Frequency of side cracking
A total of 32 plates were fabricated by varying the condi-
tions of hot rolling and scarfing. The numbers of small and
large cracks formed on the side region of the top and tail
parts were counted, and are listed in Table 4. When many
small cracks were aggregated, they were counted as one
small crack. Most side cracks were microcracks which are
tens of millimeters long and 200 ␮m or less deep, but large
cracks having over sub-millimeters depth were also observed
in some plates. The small and fine cracks were mostly formed
within 30 mm from the side, and the large cracks were formed
between 10 and 30 mm from the side.
In the specimens fabricated by the B process, more cracks
were formed than in those fabricated by the A process, regard-
less of the scarfing treatment. Locations at the plate did not
show much difference, whether they were the top or the tail.
The effect of scarfing on cracking was not readily recogniz-
able in the A specimens as the number of cracks in them was
very few. In the case of the B specimens, the number of small
cracks in the scarfed B5–B8 specimens was slightly reduced
over the number observed in the non-scarfed B1–B4 speci-
mens, and no large cracks were formed in the scarfed B5–B8
specimens at all. These findings indicate that the scarfing and
rolling conditions affect the formation of side cracks.
3.3. Microstructure of small side cracks
Optical micrographs of the cross-sectional area of the
cracked region having fine thread-shaped small cracks are
shown in Fig. 5(a–d). Unlike typical side regions without
cracks (Fig. 4a–d), the surface is rough, and the gray area
has infiltrated deeply into the plate interior. According to
SEM micrographs of the non-cracked side regions (Fig. 6a
and b), the surface seems smooth without cracks, but near
the surface, the gray area inhomogeneously intrudes deep
182 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187

Fig. 5. Optical micrographs of the cracked region having small side cracks formed in the (a) A8, (b) B3, (c) B4 and (d) B8 specimens.

Fig. 6. (a) and (b) SEM micrographs of the non-cracked side region of the steel plate rolled by the A process. (c) is an EDS spectrum of the iron oxide in (a).
 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187 183

Fig. 7. (a–c) SEM micrographs of the cracked region, showing fine lined-up iron oxides infiltrated to the interior. (b) and (c) are high-magnification SEM
micrographs of the marked rectangular regions in (a) and (b), respectively, and (d) is an EDS spectrum of fine iron oxides in (c).

into the interior, just like in the cracked side region. EDS brittle, they are smashed after hot rolling, and leave grooves
analysis of these gray areas indicates that they are all iron on the surface, which look like microcracks. In some cases,
oxides (Fig. 6c). The iron oxides often form either agglom- they infiltrate into the interior, and form fine oxides sized
erates or pores in the interior (Fig. 6a). When the oxides are smaller than 5 ␮m as shown in Fig. 7(a–c). These fine oxides

Fig. 8. (a–d) Optical micrographs of the surface region containing a large side crack in the B3 specimen. (b)–d) are high-magnification optical micrographs of
the marked ‘A’ through ‘C’ areas, respectively, in (a).
184 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187
Fig. 9. (a) and (b) SEM micrographs of the region containing a large side
crack in the B3 specimen, showing a number of fine iron oxide particles.
are typically aligned in a row, irrespective of grain boundaries
(Fig. 7b and c), and EDS analysis identifies them to be Mn–Si-
rich iron oxides (Fig. 7d).
3.4. Microstructure of large side cracks
Fig. 8(a–d) are optical micrographs of the cracked region
having a large crack in the B3 specimen. Large cracks are
mostly formed in about 1 mm depth, and are propagated
parallel to the aligned direction of the ferrite–pearlite struc-
ture (Fig. 8a). Ferrite areas with extremely little pearlites are
observed near the crack because of serious decarburization,
and the hardness of these areas is slightly lower than that
of other typical ferrite areas with pearlites (Fig. 8b and d).
High-magnification SEM micrographs of the large-cracked
region show that the vicinity of the crack is oxidized, and
that many fine spheroidal oxides sized smaller than 1 ␮m are
present inside (Fig. 9a and b). EDS analysis of these oxides
identifies them to be iron oxides containing a larger amount
of Mn and Si, just as those formed in the small-cracked
region.
4. Discussion
In steel plates, in general, small and large cracks are readily
formed in many regions. These cracks can arise either from
material inappropriateness or fabrication process. Cracks
arising from the material problem include scab, skin hole,
blow hole, sand mark, longitudinal crack, latitudinal crack,
star crack, lamination, pipe, lamellar tear and blister because
of inclusions, non-metallic inclusions, pores and pin holes
which are present on the surface or interior of slabs, insuffi-
cient dehydrization, deoxidization, improper Mn/S ratio and
damaged refractory [1,10–15]. On the other hand, cracks aris-
ing from the fabrication process include edge crack, scale and
pit, roll mark, scratch, pick up, processing crack, wave and
impurity mark, together with center or edge cracking, warp-
ing and wrinkling due to the roll shape [16–19]. The side
cracks in this study are linear cracks shorter than 100 mm
occurring on the plate surface within 30 mm from the side,
which can be seen as a type of longitudinal cracks. Main
microstructural factors responsible for this side cracking are
the size, shape and arrangement of grains and oxides. The
present study is concerned with investigating the formation
mechanism of the side cracking by mainly focusing on hot
rolling process conditions as well as these microstructural
factors.
Though both the center and side surface regions of the
plates fabricated in this study have a typical ferrite–pearlite
structure, its size, shape, arrangement direction and degree
of decarburization vary from each other, and the surface
structure also differs from the interior structure (Fig. 3a–f).
This is because grains are elongated after hot rolling, and
because dynamic recrystallization partially takes place due
to high rolling temperatures. Particularly, the microstructural
arrangement on the surface of the center region different from
the surface of the side region requires special attention. It is
ideal that the microstructures of all regions in rolled plates
are parallel to the surface, but the microstructure near the
surface of the side region is slanted to the surface. The slope
decreases and becomes almost parallel to the surface as it gets
from the side region to the center region or from the surface to
the interior. This difference in microstructural arrangement
may affect the initiation of microcracks in the side region.
When the surface of the side region where the microstructure
is lined up vertically to the surface is exposed to high temper-
atures after hot rolling, oxidization and decarburization occur
more readily in the surface region than in the center region
because diffusion is activated.
Figs. 4(a and b) and 5(a–d) show the side regions of the
non-cracked specimens and the cracked specimens, respec-
tively. The oxidization is relatively stable and homogeneous
in the side region of the non-cracked specimens, whereas the
oxidized layers tend to be thick and irregular in the side region
of the cracked ones. Since oxides mostly observed in the side
region of the cracked specimens are brittle when they are
aggregated, they are readily fractured or form voids under
applied stress, or can be fallen off, when serious, to form
 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187
Fig. 10. Schematic diagram showing the formation process of small side cracks during hot rolling: (a) formation of ferrite–pearlite band structure, (b) formation
of the carbon layer and iron oxide layer on the plate surface and (c) formation of small side cracks in the side regions of the plate under applied exterior loads.
small, thread-shaped cracks on the surface. Also, when the
rolling load continuously applies after the cracking, oxides
are broken and infiltrated deeply into the interior in a fine
particle shape, thereby leading to the formation of the line-
up of Mn–Si-rich iron oxides in the interior (Fig. 7a–d).
When coarse oxides or oxide layers are in contact or col-
lision against side guide rolls due to the movement of plates,
they can work as crack initiation sites. Furthermore, when
fine oxides are dispersed along grain boundaries, cracks are
more readily initiated. The formation process of these small
side cracks is schematically presented in Fig. 10(a–c). C–Mn-
rich areas and C–Mn-depleted areas exist in the slab before
hot rolling, but the lined-up ferrite–pearlite band structure is
developed as C–Mn-rich areas are squeezed along the rolling
direction after hot rolling (Fig. 10a). The ferrite–pearlite
banding is generally related to the microsegregation of alloy-
ing elements, and it can be eliminated by annealing for several
hours at a high austenitization temperature [20–23]. When
this band structure aligned parallel to the surface is exposed
to high temperatures and loads after hot rolling, oxidiza-
tion occurs homogeneously throughout the surface overall,
the decarburized layer and iron oxide layer are formed in
homogeneous thickness on the plate surface (Fig. 10b). How-
ever, when the band structure is slanted or almost vertical
to the surface, oxidization proceeds selectively along the
band structure, and the iron oxide layer is inhomogeneously
infiltrated deep into the interior. As the iron oxide layer is
brittle, it can easily develop into cracks under an applied load
(Fig. 10c). The final shape of small cracks occurring in the
side region can be identified in Figs. 5(a–d) and 6(a–d).
185
In comparison with small cracks, large cracks occurring in
the side region are less likely to be formed. In this study, two
large cracks were found in plates fabricated by the B pro-
cess. Cross-sectional observation of the cracks reveals that
their direction is parallel to the surface, and that they are
about 1 mm deep, unlike in small cracks. Consequently, the
formation mechanism for the large crack should be inter-
preted differently from the one for the small crack. The
large crack is formed almost parallel to the direction of the
pearlite band, and the hardness in some areas around the
crack is lower than other areas because of serious decar-
burization. The decarburization is a phenomenon in which
oxygen near the plate intrudes into the interior at high tem-
peratures, reacts with carbon, and then is removed in CO or
CO2 . As a result, the carbon concentration inside the plate
decreases, and the surface region consists mainly of soft
ferrites as the oxidization reaction is accelerated. This decar-
burization phenomenon primarily arises from oxidizing gas
(e.g., air, vapor and carbonic acid gas), reducing gas (e.g.,
hydrogen and ammonia), molten salts, or iron oxides, and
it can simultaneously occur with oxidization when heated
in an oxidizing atmosphere, thereby forming a black iron
oxide layer on the surface [24,25]. The decarburization is
a process in which the carbon inside steels is removed
as the exterior oxygen reacts with the carbon diffused to
the surface. The detailed chemical reaction is as follows
[25,26]:
Fe(C) + O2 → Fe + CO2
Fe(C) + CO2 → Fe + 2CO
186 B. Hwang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 402 (2005) 177–187
As a result of this decarburization, mechanical proper-
ties deteriorate because of insufficient quenching hardness or
decreased carbon concentration in the decarburized region.
Deformation or cracking can take place when tensile stress
develops on the steel surface since the martensite start point
of the decarburized region is higher than that of the non-
decarburized region in the interior. Consequently, the decar-
burized microstructure near the large crack may have been
present near the surface before the crack formation.
In the specimens fabricated by the B process, more side
cracks take place than in those by the A process. This can
be interpreted by microstructural differences resulting from
different hot rolling conditions. According to the final rolling
reduction at the passes 10, 11 and 12 in Table 3, the B pro-
cess applies considerably higher rolling reduction than the A
process. Under the higher rolling reduction during final finish
rolling, the final grain size can decrease because the growth
of austenite grains is considerably prevented [7]. Thus, the B
specimens having more refined grains than the A specimens
may have more excellent properties. This difference in grain
size may be related to the formation of cracks. As the fine-
grained B specimens have a larger grain boundary area than
the A specimens, which works as a good path for oxidization
or decarburization reactions at high temperatures, active oxi-
dization or decarburization takes place in the B specimens. As
a result, the B specimens undergo more irregular or serious
oxidization on the surface than the A specimens, and have
more of small and large cracks in the side region.
In this study, the formation mechanism of side cracks
occurring during hot rolling in low-carbon steel plates was
investigated in terms of microstructures and rolling condi-
tions. It was found that the size, shape and arrangement of
iron oxides and other microstructures formed during reheat-
ing and hot rolling significantly affected the side cracking.
Based on these findings, following solutions can be sug-
gested to prevent or minimize the side cracking phenomenon:
(1) minimize the segregation of C and Mn in slabs by suf-
ficiently homogenizing slabs at high temperatures, (2) make
the microstructural arrangement of the ferrite–pearlite struc-
ture located in the side region as parallel to the surface as
possible through appropriate controlling of the hot rolling
conditions such as modified materials design to minimize
the broad ratio (final plate width to initial slab width), (3)
prevent or minimize the formation of iron oxides by mini-
mizing the exposure time to high temperatures and (4) even
in the presence of the oxide layer, prevent the fall-off of
oxides or the adherence of cracks resulting from excessive
edge works such as mechanical friction or impact by prop-
erly adjusting the spacing between plates and side guide rolls.
The results of this study interpreting the crack formation
behavior in terms of microstructures and fabrication process
conditions are expected to be used as important experimen-
tal data for studies to prevent the side cracking. However,
since this study is mainly concerned with comparative inter-
pretation of the qualitative and phenomenal data from the
cracked and non-cracked regions, it lacks in analyzing the
detailed microstructural variations of plates, and in investi-
gating the difference in the formation mechanism of oxides
and in the plastic deformation due to temperature distribution
in the plate width and thickness. Furthermore, more funda-
mental understanding of the cracking mechanism is required
[27–31], as the arrangement and size of grains and oxides
greatly vary with the location of the side region. In order to
clarify the microstructure, oxide shape and cracking mecha-
nism more in depth in the future, efforts are to be made on
following areas: (1) detailed analysis of oxides using trans-
mission electron microscopy, (2) simulation test of hot rolling
of slabs, (3) microstructural observation of various slabs and
plates and (4) evaluation of the cracking frequency according
to the plate location and shape.
5. Conclusions
Based on microstructural analysis of the side cracking phe-
nomenon occurring during hot rolling of thick low-carbon
steel plates, following conclusions were reached.
(1) Observation of the microstructures in the center and side
regions of steel plates showed that the ferrite–pearlite
band structure was arranged parallel to the surface in
the center region, whereas it was seriously slanted to the
surface in the side region. The slope of the band structure
decreased as it got into the center region or the interior
from the side.
(2) Small cracks typically occurring in the side region were
formed when the brittle iron oxide layer inhomoge-
neously infiltrated into the interior after the ferrite–
pearlite band structure was arranged to be slanted or
vertical to the surface after hot rolling and oxidization
occurred selectively along the ferrite–pearlite band struc-
ture.
(3) Large cracks were formed in the case of material inhomo-
geneity or insufficient homogenization during the reheat-
ing process. Since the C–Mn-rich region aggregated near
the plate surface was harder than the region nearby, the
large cracking could occur when the surface was decar-
burized, folded, and then intruded into the interior during
hot rolling.
Acknowledgments
The work was supported by Technology Innovation Center
for Metals & Materials (TICM) funded by the Ministry of
Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) of Korea.
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