ICME SUPPORT FOR JUMBO VERTICAL BLOOM CONTINUOUS CASTER

摘要

In 2014 TimkenSteel commissioned a state of the art jumbo bloom vertical continuous caster at the Faircrest Steel Plant. This $200 million investment provides for additional capacity, manufacturing flexibility, superior cleanness for strand cast products, and broader capability to support higher value SBQ and seamless mechanical tube markets. In preparation for specification of caster design and material quality, computational modeling tools were applied to evaluate the anticipated product quality and variation from the existing process path. Process modeling included computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling for design and operation of the tundish (alongside physical water modeling), deformation modeling of soft reduction roll effects on porosity and segregation, thermal modeling to evaluate transformation and thermal stress effects during cooling and reheating, and process modeling to ensure the identified metallurgical solutions fit within the practical manufacturing time envelope.