• Ilie, Sergiu
• Laschinger, Julian
• Preuler, Lukas
• Bernhard, Christian
• Taferner, Matthias
• Bernhard, Michael Christian
• Santos, Gabriel
• Wieser, Gerhard

Abstract

The market requirements on steel products with the highest surface and internal quality demand stimulate a systematic control of the steel solidification behavior during the continuous casting process. Computational process modeling is increasingly applied to understand and optimize casting practices and calibrate the soft reduction to guarantee the required product quality. In this work, we present an overview of m2CAST as a “development platform” for the continuous casting process. This platform consists of a numerical heat transfer model, considers results of laboratory experiments in the calculations, e.g. thermal analysis and nozzle measuring stand (NMS), and provides the option to use relevant process data. We investigated two case studies on a continuous slab caster at voestalpine Stahl Linz GmbH. In doing so, thermal boundary conditions obtained by the NMS were implemented, and the simulation trials were validated with temperature measurements of the dragged thermocouple method installed during the casting process. The temperature distribution over the strand width was measured additionally with two pyrometers placed in the straightening zone. Excellent agreement between the calculated strand surface temperature and the measured temperature was obtained. Furthermore, the results indicate the relevance of considering the roller bearing areas in defining the boundary conditions to accurately predict the shape of the crater end in the casting machine.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• experiment
• simulation
• steel
• thermal analysis
• solidification
• continuous casting