Monitoring the thermal state of an ingot with beveled and rounded corners in a slab crystallizer of a CCM

Abstract

The organization of ingot cooling in the continuous caster mold affects the reliability, productivity and quality of the resulting ingots. Insufficient heat exchange between the solidifying metal and the wall of the mold leads to a decrease in the thickness of the solid shell of the ingot, which causes the formation of surface defects, and when the ingot is pulled out of the mold, emergency breakthroughs occur. Excessive heat transfer leads to an increase in the thickness of the solid shell, which entails excessive shrinkage of the ingot surface with the formation of a gap between the solid shell of the ingot and the walls of the mold. The appearance of an air gap leads to increased wear of the copper walls of the mold. There is a design of copper walls that makes it possible to reduce the normal component of forces that occurs during wear, reduce the temperature gradient and stress concentration in the corner of the ingot, and also bring the thickness of the hard crust stocking in the corner closer to the perimeter of the mold. However, the thermal state of the formed ingot with such a crystallizer design remains poorly understood. The goal of the work is to create a virtual tool for monitoring the operation of the mold of a slab continuous caster based on the development of a mathematical and computer model of the thermal state of an ingot with beveled and rounded corners. The temperature distribution in the ingot was calculated using the quasi-equilibrium theory of solidification. The numerical implementation of the mathematical model and obtaining an approximate solution using a computer were carried out using the finite dif-ference method and an implicit difference scheme. A computer program was developed in the Matlab development environment. Using computer modeling, the temperature distribution over the volume of the slab at the outlet of the mold with beveled and rounded corners was obtained. The program for the selected mold design allows you to analyze the solidification of the ingot skin and monitor this process for the selected steel grade and specified casting technological parameters