A CFD model of the melt/substrate contact line in aluminum strip casting.

摘要

This thesis outlines a CFD model developed to predict the dynamic movement of the meniscus, in particular the position of the melt/substrate contact line, found in aluminum strip casting. The melt/substrate contact conditions play an important role in surface quality when the fluid is subsequently solidified into a final shape. In the current CFD model, a meniscus model is implemented as a moving boundary in the context of Finite-Element/Finite-Volume (FE/FV) solution methodology for the Navier-Stokes equations. This allows strong coupling between the meniscus and the fluid flow to be resolved. The same meniscus model was shown, when the results were non-dimensionalized, to predict the static location of substrate contact line versus imposed pressure difference for any fluid system. The coupled fluid flow/meniscus results are verified for undamped natural frequency prediction against an analytical model derived using dynamic analysis of a single degree-of-freedom (DOF) system. For this purpose, the coupled model was required to simulate the transient response of the meniscus to a step input. The developed CFD model shows promising for incorporation into a strip casting CFD model where heat transfer conditions are also considered.