Influence of Interfacial Thermal Resistance on Initial Solidification and Heat Transfer in Continuous Casting Mold of Steel

Abstract

Herein, a 2D mathematical model is established to investigate the influence of interfacial thermal resistance (Rint) between the slag and the copper plate on the initial solidification and heat transfer in the mold. The profile of the slag rim, the thickness of the solidified shell and the slag in the shell/mold gap, the heat flux on the hot face of copper plate, and the depth of solidified meniscus with different Rint are compared. With the increase in the Rint from 0.5 × 10−4 to 2.0 × 10−4 m2 K W−1, the thickness and the length of the slag rim above the meniscus decrease, the thickness of the solid slag and the solidified shell also decreases, the maximum heat flux decreases from 4.8 to 3.1 MW m−2 in the current condition, and the depth of the solidified meniscus decreases and then increases. According to the mean depth of oscillation marks measured as 0.3 mm, the average Rint is 0.8 × 10−4 m2 K W−1 in the current casting condition. With the Rint of 5.0 × 10−4 m2 K W−1, only liquid slag exists in the shell/mold gap, which indicates that the meniscus solidification and heat transfer is significantly affected by the Rint.