Assessment of Cooling Conditions of a Continuous Casting Machine for Steel Billets Based on Surface Temperature Measurements

Abstract:

For the correct simulation of solidification and temperature evolution in the continuous casting of steel, the determination of boundary conditions describing the heat-transfer phenomena through the strand surface, in each cooling zone of the casting machine, is extremely important. These boundary conditions are usually expressed as heat fluxes or heat transfer coefficients. In the present study, the surface temperature of the steel billet was experimentally determined in a steelmaking plant by infrared pyrometers positioned along the secondary cooling zone during real operation of a continuous casting machine. These data were used as input information into an Inverse Heat Transfer Code, implemented in this work, in order to permit the heat transfer coefficients of each spray cooling zone to be determined. The resulting simulations of temperature evolution during continuous casting have shown that the solidification was not complete at the unbending point and that there was a risk of breakout at the mold exit under the adopted operating conditions.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volumes 730-732)
• Pages: 841-846
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.730-732.841
• Online since: November 2012
• Authors: Noé Cheung, Leonardo L. Taconi, Amauri Garcia
• Keywords: Continuous Casting, Mathematical Modeling, Steel Billets

References

[1] C.A. Santos, J.A. Spim, M.C.F. Ierardi, A. Garcia, The use of artificial intelligence technique for the optimisation of process parameters used in the continuous casting of steel, Appl. Math. Modell. 26 (2002) 1077-1092.

DOI: 10.1016/s0307-904x(02)00062-8

[2] C.A. Santos, J.A. Spim, A. Garcia, Modeling of solidification in twin-roll strip casting, J. Mater. Proc. Technol. 102 (2000) 33-39.

DOI: 10.1016/s0924-0136(00)00448-9

[3] J. K. Brimacombe, Design of continuous casting machines based on a heat-flow analysis: state-of-the-art review, Can. Metall. Q. 15 (1976) 163-175.

DOI: 10.1179/cmq.1976.15.2.163

[4] X.S. Zheng, M.H. Sha, J.Z. Jin, Experimental research and numerical simulation of mold temperature field in continuous casting of steel, Acta Metall. Sin. 19 (2006) 176-182.

DOI: 10.1016/s1006-7191(06)60041-0

[5] S. Chaudhuri, R. K. Singh, K. Patwari, S. Majumdar, A. K. Ray, A. K. Prasad Singh, N. Neogi, Design and implementation of an automated secondary cooling system for the continuous casting of billets, ASA Trans. 49 (2010) 121-129.

DOI: 10.1016/j.isatra.2009.09.005

[6] J. K. Brimacombe, K. Sorimachi, Crack formation in the continuous casting of steel, Metall. Mater. Trans. B 8 (1977) 489-505.

DOI: 10.1007/bf02696937

[7] N. Cheung, A. Garcia, The use of a heuristic search technique for the optimization of quality of steel billets produced by continuous casting, Eng. Appl. Artif. Intel. 14 (2001) 229-238.

DOI: 10.1016/s0952-1976(00)00075-0

[8] Y. Meng, B. G. Thomas, Heat transfer and solidification model of continuous slab casting: Con1d, Metall. Mater. Trans. B, 34 (2003) 685-705.

DOI: 10.1007/s11663-003-0040-y

[9] A. Ramírez-López, R. Aguilar-López, M. Palomar-Pardavé, M.A. Romero-Romo, D. Muñoz-Negrón, Simulation of heat transfer in steel billets during continuous casting, Int. J. Miner. Metall. Mater. 17 (2010) 403-416.

DOI: 10.1007/s12613-010-0333-5

[10] V.K. Barcellos, C.R.F. Ferreira, J.A. Spim, C.A. Santos, A. Garcia, The interrelation between casting size, steel grade, and temperature evolution along the mold length and the strand surface during continuous casting of steel, Mater. Manuf. Proc. 26 (2011) 113-126.

DOI: 10.1080/10426914.2010.502950

[11] C.A. Santos, E.L. Fortaleza, C.R.F. Ferreira, J.A. Spim, A. Garcia, A solidification heat transfer model and a neural network based algorithm applied to the continuous casting of steel billets and blooms, Model. Simul. Mater. Sc. 13 (2005) 1071-1087.

DOI: 10.1088/0965-0393/13/7/005

[12] F. P. Incropera, D. P. Dewitt, Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, John Wiley & Sons, New York,1990.

[13] V. R. Voller, C. R. Swaminathan, General Source-Based Method for Solidification Phase Change, Numer. Heat Transfer, Part B 19 (1991) 175-189.

DOI: 10.1080/10407799108944962

[14] J. V. Beck, Nonlinear estimation applied to the nonlinear inverse heat conduction problem, Int. J. Heat Mass Tran. 13 (1970) 703-716.

DOI: 10.1016/0017-9310(70)90044-x

[15] M. Larreq, J.P. Birat, Optimization of casting and cooling conditions on steel continuous casters. Proceedings of the Third Process Technology Conference, Iron & Steel Society of AIME, Pittsburgh, PA.1, (1982) pp.273-282.

[16] B. Lally, L. T. Biegler, H. Henein, H., Optimization and continuous casting: part II. application to industrial casters. Metall. Mater. Trans. B 22 (1991) 649-659.

DOI: 10.1007/bf02679020