Irregular initial solidification by mold thermal monitoring in the continuous casting of steels:A review

Occasional irregular initial solidification phenomena,including stickers,deep oscillation marks,depressions,and surface cracks of strand shells in continuous casting molds,are important limitations for developing the high-efficiency continuous casting of steels.The application of mold thermal monitoring(MTM) systems,which use thermocouples to detect and respond to temperature variations in molds,has become an effective method to address irregular initial solidification phenomena.Such systems are widely applied in numerous steel companies for sticker breakout prediction.However,monitoring the surface defects of strands remains immature.Hence,indepth research is necessary to utilize the potential advantages and comprehensive monitoring of MTM systems.This paper summarizes what is included in the irregular initial solidification phenomena and systematically reviews the current state of research on these phenomena by the MTM systems.Furthermore,the influences of mold slag behavior on monitoring these phenomena are analyzed.Finally,the remaining problems of the formation mechanisms and investigations of irregular initial solidification phenomena are discussed,and future research directions are proposed.

Mathematical model and numerical investigation of the influence of spray drying parameters on granule sizes of mold powder

In this work,the formation mechanism of the droplet-to-granule was investigated in detail based on mold powder manufacturing.A specific mathematical model of two-stage spray drying was established to describe droplet and granule motion,heat and mass transfer,and granule morphology during spray drying.Then,the relationships between spray drying parameters(inlet temperature,atomization pres-sure,slurry mass flow rate)and the properties of the drying tower(temperature and velocity fields)and mold powder granules(temperature,evaporation rates,moisture content,and diameter)were simulated and calculated using ANSYS/Fluent software.To ensure that the granule size of mold powder was controlled within the ideal range(0.2-0.6 mm)for producing granules with appropriate mechanical and metallurgical properties,the following optimum spray drying parameters were chosen based on the results of the numerical simulation:inlet temperatures,873 K;slurry atomization pressure,1.8 MPa;slurry mass flow rate,0.05 kg s-1.Among these parameters,the slurry mass flow rate has the most significant effect on granule size.