Analysis of Solid-Liquid Interface Behavior during Continuous Strip-Casting Process Using Sharp-Interface Technique

Changbum Lee,Seungwon Shin,Hee-Eun Song,Jaewoo Lee,Wooyoung Yoon

doi:10.1155/2013/171936

Abstract

Continuous strip casting (CSC) has been developed to fabricate thin metal plates while simultaneously controlling the microstructure of the product. A numerical analysis to understand the solid-liquid interface behaviors during CSC was carried out and used to identify the solidification morphologies of the plate, which were then used to obtain the optimum process conditions. In this study, we used a modified level contour reconstruction method and the sharp-interface method to modify the interface tracking, and we performed a simulation analysis to identify the differences in the material properties that affect the interface behavior. The effects of the process parameters such as the heat transfer coefficient and extrusion velocity on the behavior of the solid-liquid interface are estimated and also used to improve the CSC process.

Highlights

Identifying the underlying mechanisms that occur during the solidification process is essential for determining the microstructure of a material, which in turn determines the physical properties of the final product
We studied the solid-liquid interface behavior as a function of the material properties using the level contour reconstruction method (LCRM)
We concluded that the heat transfer coefficient is an important factor that affects the formation of a solid-liquid interface

Summary

Introduction

Identifying the underlying mechanisms that occur during the solidification process is essential for determining the microstructure of a material, which in turn determines the physical properties of the final product. In a previous study, tracking of a solid-liquid interface was performed with numerical simulation of the CSC process [3]. We studied the solid-liquid interface behavior as a function of the material properties using the level contour reconstruction method (LCRM). Interface tracking and the analysis of the shape of the solid-liquid interface with a specific heat transfer coefficient were carried out in order to determine the optimum CSC process parameters. The sharp-interface method employed in a few earlier studies [5,6,7] was used in this study to implement the exact boundary conditions for a moving solid interface, maintaining an accurate phase equilibrium at the solid-liquid interface and enabling us to perform a simulation analysis of the CSC process. Tracking affords a precise description of the location and geometry of the interface, and the surface tension force can be very accurately computed directly on the interface [9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion