Considerations Concerning Numerical Modelling of Flow and Heat Transfer Phenomena in Continuous Casting of Steel

Abstract

Previous studies on the mathematical modelling of fluid flow-heat transfer phenomena in continuous casting, reported in this journal and elsewhere, are examined and, analyzed computationally. It is shown that mathematical model of continuous casting based on a constant, in lieu of a time varying inlet temperature, can produce different estimates of temperature field and solidified shell thickness in the mold. In contrast, thermal free convection phenomenon is found to be unimportant to the precise modelling of heat transfer in the mold. It is argued that a transient, rather than a steady state formulation, should be the preferred choice as the former ensures easy integration of additional process features as well as speedy convergence.