A Numerical Model for Steel Continuous Casting Problem in a Time-variable Domain

Abstract

A mathematical model and numerical method for simulation of the continuous casting process in a variable in time domain are presented. The variable geometry of the slab is caused by the change in time of the width of the mould. The mathematical model of the process is a Stefan problem with prescribed convection and non-linear Robin boundary condition. Considered differential equation is approximated by a finite difference scheme, which is constructed in several steps. First, a semi-discrete problem is constructed using the method of characteristics with respect to the time variable. Then, at each time level, the current elliptic problem in a curvilinear domain is replaced by a problem in the parallelepiped domain using the fictitious domain method. Finally, the boundary-value problem in the parallelepiped domain is approximated by a finite-difference scheme. The constructed fully discrete problem in algebraic form is a system of nonlinear equations containing a diagonal monotone operator and a linear part with a symmetric and positive definite $$M$$ -matrix. To solve the resulting system of nonlinear algebraic equations, well-known iterative solution methods can be applied.