Assessing operational performance in industrial billet casting using an instrumented mould

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the present study, the operational characteristics of an industrial billet caster were investigated. Two billet moulds were instrumented with Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG)-based temperature sensors and run for their full lives of 320 h each under normal plant conditions doing open casting with oil lubrication. The heat fluxes and temperatures of the mould wall were used to study the peritectic nature of the grades cast. The data from the moulds were also used to understand the main resistances to heat transfer by comparing the variation in mould wall temperatures to the variation in liquid steel temperature through a cast. The impact of mould life on the heat transfer through the mould was also studied by comparing data of similar casting conditions over the whole life of the mould. The instrumented moulds were also used to study sticker breakouts. The classical breakout signatures were obtained in the temperature profiles in the breakout events. It was found that the hot spot associated with the temperature peak was moving down at a speed of around 0.7–0.75 times the casting speed. The usefulness of FBG-based temperature sensors for practical billet caster operations has been shown.