Initial Solidification and Heat Transfer at Different Locations of Slab Continuous Casting Mold through 3D Coupled Model

Abstract

Herein, a 3D mathematical model is established to investigate the initial solidification and heat transfer at different locations of the mold through considering the steel–slag–air three‐phase fluid flow, the heat transfer, the solidification, and the mold oscillation. The meniscus solidification on different sections is revealed, and the heat flux on hot face of the mold is compared. Through the simulation, the meniscus solidification on longitudinal sections parallel to narrow face is the largest at the center and the edge of wide face, and is the lowest at a quarter of wide face. The thickness of the total slag on the cross section is larger at the corner than that far from the corner. In the current simulation, the largest heat flux along the vertical direction is 2.6–3.5 MW m−2 at approximately 14 mm below initial meniscus. With the increase in thickness of the slag rim on different longitudinal sections, the thickness of the slag increases, resulting in the decrease in the heat flux on the hot face. Therefore, the initial solidification and heat transfer are significantly affected by the thickness of the slag as well as the heat supplement from the upper backflow.