ANALYSIS OF THERMO-MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR IN BILLET CASTING

摘要

Computational models of continuous casting of steel in square billet molds are validated with measurements and applied to investigate temperature, shrinkage, stress, and longitudinal cracks in the shell. For conventional taper, increasing corner radius increases longitudinal surface corner crack formation in the mold. Flux lubrication helps by increasing uniformity. Increasing casting speed or section size or shortening mold length increases off-corner subsurface longitudinal cracks, as bulging causes hinging around the corner, especially below mold exit with no foot rolls. Longitudinal crack formation mechanisms are quantified in this work and guidelines are presented to avoid them, based on critical casting speed limits which depend on section size, mold length, and other parameters.