Effect of the Inclination of Mold Walls on Primary Cooling During the Continuous Casting of Steel

Abstract

The principal function of a continuous casting mold is to receive the liquid steel and ensure its cooling in order to permit the formation of a solidified and sufficiently resistant skin. This is the phase of primary cooling. The efficiency of this process depends on several parameters, such as the casting speed, the temperature exchange between the walls of the mold and the thin crust of the slab, as well as the conicity of continuous casting mold. The latter has been the subject of this work, which consists in investigation of the influence of the conicity of mold on the variation of the temperature field, and friction, generated during lowering of the slab. The numerical simulation was carried out using Fluent 6.0 code. The obtained curves reflect changes of the factors mentioned above as a functions of the conicity.