Numerical investigation into flow and solidification behavior of billet continuous casting with and without mold electromagnetic stirring

Abstract

AbstractMold electromagnetic stirring (M‐EMS) in the continuous casting process improves the metallurgical quality of the caster as it acts as a dendrite breaker and increases the heat transfer. In this study, a numerical model of molten steel flow and solidification of continuous casting billet caster is developed. Further, this model is coupled with M‐EMS to investigate the influence of stirring on molten steel flow dynamics and solidification in the mold. The magnetic field calculations are performed in ANSYS Maxwell and computational fluid dynamics solver Fluent is used for flow field and heat transfer calculations. The fluid flow, temperature field, and solidification are investigated and compared with without M‐EMS case. The results indicate that the application of M‐EMS significantly changes flow dynamics in the mold. Strong swirl flow is dominant and a significant increment in tangential velocity is observed in the presence of M‐EMS. High intense rotational flow about the strand center gives rise to the superheat transfer near the solidification front, which further enhances the temperature in this region and thereby decreases the solidification thickness in the M‐EMS‐affected zone