The effect of thermal properties on the thermal behavior of a steel billet was investigated during the heating process to understand each effect and to provide process engineers with sufficient data to choose the optimal design conditions in reheating the furnace for hot rolling. Carbon steel and austenitic stainless steel (STS) were compared based on numerical simulations owing to the completely different thermal properties of these two steels: carbon steel having a phase transformation with a relatively high thermal conductivity and STS having no phase transformation with a relatively low thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity affected the thermal behavior of the billet in the initial stage of heating owing to the high temperature difference between the surface of the billet and the gas in the furnace, i.e., the high Biot number. Accordingly, a non-firing zone and/or a preheating zone with a low gas temperature are necessary for high-alloyed steels including STS because the thermal conductivity of these steels is relatively low. The phase transformation of the carbon steels needs to occur in the primary heating zone, and this zone needs to have a relatively low gas temperature to reduce the temperature deviation or thermal stress in the billet. The heating pattern of the carbon steels and STSs in the reheating furnace should be designed differently considering the thermal conductivity and latent heat by the phase transformation of steels to obtain a high heating quality for the billet.
Keywords: billet; heating process; latent heat; thermal behavior; thermal conductivity.