Continuous casting novel mould for round steel billet optimised by solidification shrinkage simulation

摘要

A thermal–mechanical coupled model has been employed to simulate the temperature andnstrain–stress fields of continuous casting steel billets with ANSYSTM software. In the model, a gapndependent heat transfer condition was introduced to modify the function of heat flux betweennmould wall and billet surface. The thermal and mechanical properties of materials as well as yieldnfunction were used considering the effect of temperature. The shrinkage behaviours of four roundnbillets which solidified within four different petal-like moulds were studied by indirect couplednmethod. The simulation results showed that the six-petal mould is the best one in the four optionalnmoulds. According to the evolution of shrinkage and the principle of compensating, a petal-likeninner cavity and excessive taper were designed for continuous casting of round steel billets. Thendesigned mould was tested in steel factory, which was equivalent or even better than the existingnadvanced moulds in terms of the surface and inner qualities of billets.