Continuous casting novel mould for round steel billet optimised by solidification shrinkage simulation

Abstract

A thermal–mechanical coupled model has been employed to simulate the temperature and strain–stress fields of continuous casting steel billets with ANSYSTM software. In the model, a gap dependent heat transfer condition was introduced to modify the function of heat flux between mould wall and billet surface. The thermal and mechanical properties of materials as well as yield function were used considering the effect of temperature. The shrinkage behaviours of four round billets which solidified within four different petal‐like moulds were studied by indirect coupled method. The simulation results showed that the six‐petal mould is the best one in the four optional moulds. According to the evolution of shrinkage and the principle of compensating, a petal‐like inner cavity and excessive taper were designed for continuous casting of round steel billets. The designed mould was tested in steel factory, which was equivalent or even better than the existing advanced moulds in terms of the surface and inner qualities of billets.