ABSTRACT
Steelmaking encompasses re ning in a basic oxygen furnace (BOF), secondary processing in ladles, continuous casting, and, nally, mechanical working, and surface and heat treatment. The manufacturing of steel therefore includes processing in both the liquid as well as the solid states. Liquid-state processing operations mostly deal with temperature, composition, and cleanliness adjustments and involve chemical reactions, uid ow, turbulence, heat and mass transfer, etc. On the other hand, solid-state processing operations are concerned with microstructure, texture, and surface characteristics of steel and include mechanical working (both hot and cold working) and nal nishing operations such as heat treatment, galvanizing, etc. Both liquid-and solid-state processing operations are technologically signi cant as these dictate steel quality as well as the service performance of various steel components. This is also true of process route, which permits the direct production of nished hot strip coils through strip casting without having to do much processing in the solid state. A broad classi cation of steelmaking processing operations is illustrated in Figure 7.1.
