Water modeling of mold powder entrapment in slab continuous casting mold

The optimal parameters were determined by the water modeling of slab casting. It was found that there are mainly three types of mold powder entrapment in slab continuous casting, i.e., the entrapment caused by the shearing flow near the narrow face of mold, the entrapment caused by vortexes around the submerged entry nozzle （SEN）, and the entrapment caused by the Ar bubbling. Both the velocity of the surface flow and the level fluctuation of the liquids are enlarged with increasing the casting speed, reducing the submersion depth of SEN, decreasing the downward angles of the nozzle outlets, and increasing the Ar flowrate, all of which increase the tendency of mold powder entrapment. Among the four above-mentioned factors, casting speed has the largest effect.

Physical modeling of gas-liquid interfacial fluctuation in a thick slab continuous casting mold with argon blowing

Combining with the physical model of level fluctuation in a thick slab continuous casting mold with the cross-section of 1500 mm×280 mm and argon blowing, the rationalities of estimating the level fluctuation by three traditional quantitative approaches were discussed, and the effects of gas flowrate, casting speed, and the immersion depth of submerged entry nozzle （SEN） on the level fluctuation were also investigated. As a result, it seems that three traditional quantitative approaches are not very suitable for estimating the level fluctuation in a mold with argon blowing, so a new approach for estimating level fluctuation in the mold with argon blowing was presented. The experimental results show that the level fluctuation is mainly in the region around the nozzle wall. When the casting speeds are larger than a certain value, there is the escape of large bubbles near the nozzle wall, which causes an obvious increase of level fluctuation. Furthermore, optimal process parameters, viz., the gas flowrate of 6 NL/min, the casting speed of 1.1 m/min, and the immersion depth of 170 mm, are presented to restrain the level fluctuation by a physical model.

Characteristics of shell thickness in a slab continuous casting mold

The key to reduce shell breakout in the continuous casting process is to control shell thickness in the mold. A numerical simulation on the turbulent flow and heat transfer coupled with solidification in the slab mold using the volume of fluid （VOF） model and the enthalpy-porosity scheme was conducted and the emphasis was put upon the flow effect on the shell thickness profiles in longitudinal and transverse directions. The results show that the jet acts a stronger impingement on the shell of narrow face, which causes a zero-increase of shell thickness in a certain range near the impingement point. The thinnest shell on the slab cross-section locates primarily in the center of the narrow face, and secondly near the comer of the wide face. Nozzle optimization can obviously increase the shell thickness and make it more uniform.

Effect of cooling structure on thermal behavior of copper plates of slab continuous casting mold

A three-dimensional finite-element model of slab continuous casting mold was conducted to clarify the effect of cooling structure on thermal behavior of copper plates. The results show that temperature distribution of hot surface is mainly governed by cooling structure and heat-transfer conditions. For hot surface centricity, maximum surface temperature promotions are 30 ℃and 15 ℃ with thickness increments of copper plates of 5 mm and nickel layers of 1 ram, respectively. The surface temperature without nickel layers is depressed by 10 ℃ when the depth increment of water slots is 2 mm and that with nickel layers adjacent to and away from mold outlet is depressed by 7℃ and 5 ℃, respectively. The specific trend of temperature distribution of transverse sections of copper plates is nearly free of cooling structure, but temperature is changed and its law is similar to the corresponding surface temperature.

Flow and Temperature Fields in Slab Continuous Casting Molds

In order to develop super-board and super-thick slabs, the flow and temperatur fields were studied in slab continuous casting molds under different practical conditions, such as slab dimensions, with-drawing slab speed, design of nozzles, and superheat tempera-ture. The results showed that it is preferred to incline nozzle bores downwards and the submerged depth of the nozzles is best kept be-tween 250-300 mm. In addition, the solidified shell is thicker at the wide face than that at the narrow face, while the thin points alongthe wide face ekist both in the center and in the some area toward each respective end.

Evaluation of the performance of mold powder for continuous casting of plate slabs

The No. 3 slab caster,which mainly provides slabs to the 5000 mm plate mill at Baosteel, was put into production in December,2004. The size of the biggest slab produced by this caster is 2300 mm in width and 300 mm in thickness. The designed output of the caster is 2.3 Mt/a. Slab surface longitudinal crack defects,which were related to the heat flux of the mold, frequently occurred in the early stage of the startup of the caster. As mild cooling powder is beneficial to the uniformity of the shell of initial slabs ,the concentration of stress is reduced, and the longitudinal cracking on the surface is avoided. This study evaluates the performance of several kinds of powder, and the results show that mold powder of high basicity, high crystallization proportion and low heat flux is to the benefit of the reduction of the longitudinal cracks on the surface and the defects of slabs.

Simulation of thermal behavior during peritectic steel solidification in slab continuous casting mold

Thermal behavior of the solidifying shell in continuous casting mold is very important to final steel products.In the present work,one two-dimension transient thermal-mechanical finite element model was developed to simulate the thermal behavior of peritectic steel solidifying in slab continuous casting mold by using the sequential coupling method.In this model,the steel physical properties at high temperature was gotten from the micro-segregation model withδ/γtransformation in mushy zone,and the heat flux was obtained according to the displacement between the surface of solidifying shell and the hot face of mold as solidification contraction,the liquid-solid structure and distribution of mold flux,and the temperature distribution of slab surface and mold hot face,in addition,the rate-dependent elastic-viscoplastic constitutive equation was applied to account for the evolution of shell stress in the mold.With this model,the variation characteristics of surface temperature,heat flux, and growth of the solidifying shell corner,as well as the thickness distribution of the liquid flux,solidified flux,air gap and the corresponding thermal resistance were described.

Physical modeling and numerical simulation of electromagnetic stirring in a slab continuous casting mold

Through physical modeling and numerical simulation,the flow field in a slab continuous casting mold with electromagnetic stirring is measured under different casting parameters and stirring currents. To qualitatively evaluate the flow field in the mold, two indexes,i, e., mold flux entrapment and velocity uniformity, are proposed. Based on these two indexes, some optimized stirring parameters under different casting conditions can be determined.

INFLUENCES OF CASTING SPEED AND SEN DEPTH ON FLUID FLOW IN THE FUNNEL TYPE MOLD OF A THIN SLAB CASTER

In recent years, thin slab continuous casting technology has been widely used to improve the quality of the product and to reduce the cost. One of the challenges faced by this technology is to design reasonable flow patterns, which strongly affect the surface and inner properties of the final slab in the mold. With the fixed scales and complex geometrical structures of nozzle and funnel type mold, a series of numerical simulations are made to analyze the flow patterns in melt steel using finite volume method based on structured body fitted coordinate grids. The CFD （computational fluid dynamics） package is validated first using one typical case described in previously published studies, and then it is developed to study the effect of operational parameters on fluid flow in thin slab caster. Two operational parameters, casting speed and SEN （submerged entry nozzle） depth, are mainly considered for numerical analysis. On the basis of present simulations, the reasonable SEN submergence depths corresponding to different casting speeds are suggested according to fluid flow characteristics like, flow jet impingement on the narrow side of the mold, flow speed of the melt steel beneath the meniscus and the recirculation region. This is the first stage of study on the numerical analysis of the whole thin slab casting process with electromagnetic brake.

Optimization design of wide face water slots for medium-thick slab casting mold

A three-dimensional finite-element model has been established to investigate the thermal behavior of the medium-thick slab copper casting mold with different cooling water slot designs. The mold wall temperatures measured using thermocouples buried in different positions of the mold with the original designed cooling system were analyzed to determine the corresponding heat flux profile. This profile was then used for simulation to predict the temperature distribution and the thermal stress distribution of the molds. The predicted temperatures during operation matched the plant measurements. The results showed that the maximum temperature, about 635 K in the wide hot surface, was found about 60 mm below the meniscus and 226 mm from the center of the mold. For the mold with the type I modified design, there was an insignificant decrease in temperature of about 5 K, and for the mold with the type II modified design, the maximum temperature was decreased by about 15 K and the temperature of the hot surface was distributed more uniformly along the length of the mold. The corresponding maximum thermal stress at the hot surface of the mold was reduced from 408 MPa to 386 MPa with the type II modified design. The results indicated that the modified design II is beneficial to the increase of mold life and the quality of casting slabs.

Behavior of Liquid Steel in Mold for Thin Slab Caster

The comparison of different submerged entry nozzles(SEN)was made by numerical simulation regarding the influence of liquid steel flow field,heat transfer and mold fluxes,as well as solidification shell stress and surface quality of thin slabs.The optimum internal shape of mold and the SEN were obtained.The foundation for choice of internal shape and casting parameters of mold was built.

The optimization of mold fluxes used for casting the peritectic steel of heavy slabs at Baosteel

In order to solve the problem of the high surface longitudinal crack ratio of heavy peritectic steel slabs produced by the No. 3 continuous caster at Baosteel,the physical properties of the original mold flux and the optimized mold flux were compared in a comprehensive way by using analytical measures, such as a slag film heat-flow simulator, a thermowire molten flux crystallization tester and an X-ray diffractometer in the laboratory. The results reveal that one of the major reasons for the cracks is the poor heat transfer ability of the original mold flux. However, the optimized mold flux with a high basicity features a high crystallizing rate,low crystallization temperature and low heat-flow density. Therefore, the optimized mold flux is more suitable for casting peritectic steel by the heavy slab continuous caster. The test results show that the slabs produced by using the optimized mold flux had no surface longitudinal crack in four test casts, while the surface longitudinal crack ratio of the slabs produced by using the original mold flux was 5%. The optimized mold flux can effectively prevent slab surface longitudinal cracks from occurring.

Influence of submerged entry nozzle clogging on the behavior of molten steel in continuously cast slab molds

The influence of submerged entry nozzle clogging on the behavior of molten steel in continuously cast slab molds was studied using commercial code CFX4.3. The results indicate that clogging at the top part of the nozzle port not only increases the velocity of molten steel, but also enhances the wall shear stress, F number and heat flux. This clogging has the greatest effect on the behavior of molten steel. However, clogging at the top 1/3 of the nozzle only increases the velocity of molten steel and has little influence. Clogging at the bottom of the nozzle almost has no influence.

Study on Flow in Mold With EMBr in Slab Continuous Casting

A mercury model has been developed to investigate the influences of Electromagnetic Mold Brake Ruler(EMBr-Ruler) and Flow Control Mold(FC Mold) on metal flow in slab continuous casting mold with the practical casting speed 1.0,1.3 and 2.0 m/min respectively.FC-Mold can efficiently repress the surface flow and its fluctuation.The expanding space of the jets is compressed by EMBr-Ruler and FC-Mold respectively,then the 'flow passage' where the vertical velocity of flow increases sharply is developed near the narrow wall with EMBr-Ruler and FC-Mold.It is bad for the development of the plug like flow.Only the nozzle ports are placed in the braking magnetic field region and the casting speed is suitable,EMBr can be beneficial to the formation of the plug like flow.The flow regime is improved with FC Mold when the casting speed is high(2.0 m/min),but EMBr can improve the flow field with medium casting speed(1.3 m/min),but when the casting speed is low(1.0 m/min),the effects of two types of EMBr are both unsatisfactory.

LATTICE BGK MODEL SIMULATION OF ASYMMETRIC FLOW INSIDE A CONTINUOUS SLAB CASTING MOLD

The incompressible lattice Bhatnager-Gross-Krook （BGK） model of computational fluid dynamics, from which the unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations can be exactly derived with the limit of small Mach number, was established in continuous casting mold. An asymmetric flow pattern in the two-dimensional central plane of continuous slab casting mold was simulated, and the flow pattern is not stationary but changes over frequently if the Reynolds number is larger than 3000 or so. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with previous experimental results.

Abnormal mold level fluctuation during slab casting of peritectic steels

Abnormal mold level fluctuation is frequently observed in high-speed casting,especially for peritectic steels,which has been shown to severely deteriorate product quality.Both an online electromagnetic sensor and an ibaAnalyzer are used to analyze the frequency and amplitude of massive mold level fluctuation data from the slab casting process of different steel grades using different casting speeds,slab widths and physical parameters of mold flux.The results show that in the slab continuous casting process of peritectic steels,the main frequency and equivalent amplitude of abnormal mold level fluctuations first increase and then decrease with increasing the carbon content.In the production of various grades of steel,the main frequency of abnormal mold level fluctuation and the equivalent amplitude increase with increasing the casting speed,while the main frequency of abnormal mold level fluctuation changes little with increasing the casting width.The main frequency of abnormal mold level fluctuation is positively related to the surface tension of the mold flux.Based on these results,a new mechanism has been presented.It is shown that the abnormal mold level fluctuation is mainly induced by shell bulging while moving through the rollers,and resonance occurs when the frequency approaches the natural frequency of the molten steel in mold,which results in a large amplitude of the abnormal mold level fluctuation.Based on this mechanism,a new equation for the resonance frequency of molten steel is proposed.The improved method based on this mechanism has proved to be effective in controlling abnormal mold fluctuations.

高建钢Q420GJZ35大型夹杂物行为

对河钢集团唐山中厚板材有限公司生产的高建钢Q420GJZ35大型夹杂物的种类、数量、尺寸等进行了试验研究,并在钢包渣、中间包覆盖剂、中间包打结料中分别加入Ba、La、Ce示踪元素追踪夹杂物来源。研究结果显示:稳态坯中大型夹杂物总体含量为16.8 mg/10kg;非稳态铸坯中含量最高36.2 mg/10 kg,根据示踪检测结果,部分夹杂黏附有钢包渣、结晶器保护渣和保护渣,其中结晶器卷渣是夹杂物的一个重要来源。通过优化改进浸入式水口,将水口由单侧口改为双侧口,侧孔长度由105 mm改为100 mm,水口出口为带圆角的方孔,并进行数值模拟分析。结果显示,改进型水口计算结晶器流场分布合理,表面波动较小,符合设计要求,有利于表面钢液的合金化和杂质的上浮。

FC Mold Ⅱ电磁制动中磁场匹配对金属液流影响

通过物理模拟实验研究板坯连铸流动控制结晶器(flow control moldⅡ,即FC MoldⅡ)电磁制动过程中,磁场强度和分布对结晶器内金属液流动的影响规律.实验中,以水银为模拟工质,在模型拉速为0.41,0.52和0.82 m/min(分别相当于生产拉速1.00,1.30和2.00 m/min),电磁制动的上区磁场强度B_1=0.18,0.36和0.50 T,下区磁场保持B_2=0.50 T不变的匹配(组合)条件下,考察结晶器(模型)内的水银流态和流速分布,并以此分析上、下区磁场强度匹配(组合)对水口出流、液面流动以及结晶器窄面模壁所受冲刷等的影响规律.结果表明,在上述拉速条件下,FC MoldⅡ电磁制动的上、下区磁场强度匹配关系,分别取B_1/B_2=0.36,0.72和1.00时,结晶器中金属液的制动效果最好.

复合磁场作用下板坯结晶器内钢液流动、传热与凝固的数值模拟

为利用板坯连铸过程中电磁搅拌技术和电磁制动技术各自的优点克服自身缺点,本文应用了结合电磁搅拌和电磁制动的分体式复合磁场并提出电磁制动的结构为单条型电磁制动,对板坯连铸结晶器流场和温度场进行控制.建立了该磁场下结晶器内钢液流动、传热、凝固耦合的三维数值模拟模型.对复合磁场给予结晶器内钢液流动及传热与凝固的影响进行了分析.结果表明:施加复合磁场后,结晶器内上、下返流流速明显减小,钢液主流股对窄面的冲击深度变小,上返流整体下移,弯月面钢液形成顺时针循环流;结晶器内整体温度分布更均匀,弯月面处温度较无磁场时基本不变;结晶器出口处凝固坯壳更为均匀,其厚度较无磁场下有所增加,钢液射流对窄面附近初生坯壳冲刷程度减小.

高钛钢连铸结晶器内“结鱼”的形成

针对高钛钢连铸结晶器内“结鱼”问题,采用SEM-EDS分析方法,观察了结鱼物和铸坯缺陷的形貌,测定了结鱼物和铸坯缺陷化学组成,分析了高钛钢内TiN夹杂物形成的热力学条件,探讨了结鱼物形成的机制。结果表明:高钛钢连铸坯缺陷样主要由钢基体、孔洞、保护渣、钙钛矿和TiN等物质组成,其与结鱼物的组成较为接近,缺陷样内存在着7~8μm的TiN聚集现象;当钢中全氮质量分数低于46×10^(-6)时,高钛钢钢液的TiN夹杂物生成与非稳态生产有关;高钛钢结晶器内的结鱼物和连铸坯夹渣缺陷的产生与钢液中TiN的生成及其在钢渣界面处聚集有关。