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JOURNAL OF IRON AND STEEL RESEARCH, INTERNATIONAL. 2013, 20(3) : 06-17

Multiphase Flow and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviors of

Solidifying Shell in Continuous Casting Mold
ZHU Miao-yong,

CAI Zhao-zhen,

YU Hai-qi

(School of Materials and Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, Liaoning, China)
Abstract: T h e metallurgical phenomena occurring in the continuous casting mold have a significant influence on the
performance and the quality of steel product. T h e multiphase flow phenomena of molten steel, steel/slag interface
and gas bubbles in the slab continuous casting mold were described by numerical simulation, and the effect of electro
magnetic brake ( E M B R ) and argon gas blowing on the process were investigated. T h e relationship between wavy
fluctuation height near meniscus and the level fluctuation index F , which reflects the situation of mold flux entrap
ment, was clarified. Moreover, based on a microsegregation model of solute elements in mushy zone with 8/7 trans
formation and a thermo-mechanical coupling finite element model of shell solidification, the thermal and mechanical
behaviors of solidifying shell including the dynamic distribution laws of air gap and mold flux, temperature and stress
of shell in slab continuous casting mold were described.
Key words : continuous casting mold; multiphase flow; heat transfer; solidification; numerical simulation

The continuous casting mold has been taken as

the heart of continuous casting machine due to its
important roles of heat transfer with high efficiency,
cleaning molten steel and controlling strand quality
during casting performance. The molten steel flow
in the continuous casting mold has a great influence
on the important phenomena related to product qual
ity, including the entrapment of inclusions and ar
gon gas bubbles on the solidified shell and the tem
perature distribution of molten steel. Electromag
netic brake (EMBR) and argon gas injection as the
concerned molten steel flow-control technologies in
the mold for improving the quality of continuous
casting slab at high casting speed are of great help
and significance. So it is necessary to have an indepth understanding that the flow and steel/slag in
terface behaviors particularly in the case of applying
different in-mold flow-control methods to achieve
the perfect metallurgical objectives. Numerical sim
ulation as an economical and effective method has
been developed and applied widely to study the flow
and interfacial behavior in continuous casting
mold'-1-9-'. However, the steel/slag interface charac

teristics as various flow-control means are applied,

especially in the case of coupling the EMBR and ar
gon gas injection, has been rarely considered.
Thermal and mechanical behaviors of the solidi
fying shell in continuous casting mold are linked to
the performance of continuous casting and the quali
ty of slab, which are controlled mainly by the inter
face thermal resistance between shell and mold cop
per plate and mechanical loads. Therefore, the be
haviors of mold flux such as state, thickness distri
bution and heat transfer characteristics, air gap dis
tribution, cooling structure of mold and cooling sys
tem , as well as mold taper setting have a great effect
on the progress of steel solidification in mold. Be
cause of the limitation of detection and measure
ment, most of the studies on shell thermal and me
chanical behaviors in mold also have been carried out
by computer simulation without considering the
effect of mold flux film between solidifying shell and
mold on shell heat transfer or just assuming the uni
form distribution of mold flux D o - 1 7 ] . Actually, the
thickness of mold flux along the circumference and
the height of mold are not uniform since the thermal

Foundation Item:Item Sponsored by National Outstanding Young Scientist Foundation of China (50925415) ; Fundamental Research Funds for
Central Universities of China (N100102001)
Biography:ZHU Miao-yong(1965), Male, Doctor, Professor;
E-mail: myzhu@mail.neu.edu.cn; Received Date: September 3, 2012

Issue 3

M u l t i p h a s e F l o w a n d T h e r m o - M e c h a n i c a l B e h a v i o r s of Solidifying S h e l l in C o n t i n u o u s C a s t i n g M o l d

contraction of initially solidified shell changes dy

namically in mold, and both the mold flux state and
mold/flux interfacial thermal resistance also vary
with the temperature of shell.
In this paper, the multiphase flow phenomena
of molten steel, steel/slag interface and gas bubbles
in the slab continuous casting mold were described
by numerical simulation, and the effects of EMBR
and argon gas blowing on the process were investi
gated. The relationship between wavy fluctuation
height near meniscus and level fluctuation index F
reflecting the situation of mold flux entrapment was
clarified. Based on a microsegregation model of sol
ute elements in mushy zone with 8/y transformation
and a thermo-mechanical coupling finite element
model of shell solidification, the thermal and me
chanical behaviors of solidifying shell including the
dynamic distribution laws of air gap, mold flux,
shell temperature and stress in slab continuous cast
ing mold were analyzed.

Fig. 1 Schematics of geometrical model of mold

with EMBR (a) and grid division of mold (b)
vision of the mold. There is a liquid slag layer on
top of molten steel in the mold. The detailed geome
try and simulation process parameters are given in
Table 1. In the present study, additional magnetic
field produced by the molten steel flow in the mold,
and the influence of the solidified shell and the oscil
lation of mold on the molten steel flow are ignored.
The gas bubbles are assumed to be spherical with a
uniform size.

Mathematical Model and Procedure

1.1

Multiphase flow in mold

Fig. 1 shows the schematics of one quarter mold
geometry model with EMBR device and the mesh di-

Table 1 Process and physical parameters

Parameters

Valu

Mold size ( width X thickness)

1150 m m X 2 2 4 mm

SEN submergence d e p t h / m m

170

SEN port angle/ C )

-15

Casting speed t i c / ( m m i n - 1 )

2.1

Molten steel d e n s i t y / ( k g m - 3 )

7100

Molten steel viscosity/(Pa s)

0.005 5

Molten steel electric conductivity/( S m - 1 )

Molten steel magnetic conductivity/ ( H m

-1

7. 1 4 X 1 0 5
)

1.257X10-

Armature core magnetic conductivity/( H m - 1 )

Copper mold electric conductivity/(S m

_1

1. 2 5 7 X 1 0 ~ 3
4. 7 X 1 0 7

Argon gas bubble d i a m e t e r / m m

Argon gas d e n s i t y / ( k g m - 3 )

0.32

Argon gas flow rate vJCL m i n _ 1 ) ( 1 0 1 . 325 k P a , 298 K )

2, 4, 6

Liquid slag d e n s i t y / ( k g m - 3 )

2 700

Liquid slag viscosity/(Pa s)

0.2

Thickness of liquid slag layer/mm

20

Steel/slag interface tension coefficient/(N m - 1 )

1.6

Contact angle of steel/slag i n t e r f a c e / O

60

Circle number of coils/loops

80

Upper coil current of EMBR i u / A

0, 100, 200, 300

Lower coil current of EMBR J L / A

500, 600, 700, 850

1.1.1
Governing equations and boundary conditions
The governing equations include the electromagnetic
field equations, the VOF model equation for tracking the

steel/slag interface, the Lagrangian discrete phase model

(DPM) equation for predicting the influence of argon
gas injection, and the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes

Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International

equations. The detailed descriptions have been ex

pressed in the published papers1-8-9-1.
For three-dimensional calculation, only a quarter of
the EMBR device and mold are analysed because the
twofold symmetry of the mold and the static magnetic
field is produced by the EMBR. For the boundary
conditions of electromagnetic field calculation based
on ANSYS, the boundary conditions in the symme
try planes and the air surfaces need only to be set
with the magnetic flux parallel condition. For the
boundary conditions of flow field and steel/slag in
terface calculation based on F L U E N T , the inlet of
SEN and the outlet of the mold as the velocity-inlet
have the same mass flow rate corresponding to the
specified casting speed, and the volume fraction of
molten steel at the inlet was set to 1 ; normal gradi
ents of all variables at the symmetry planes were set
to zero; the wall was set to non-slip boundary condi
tion with zero normal velocity and the standard "wall
functions" near the wall were used to capture the
steep gradients with accuracy on a coarse grid. For
the boundary conditions of discrete phases calcula
tion based on F L U E N T , the gas bubbles were as
sumed to "escape" at the steel/slag interface and the
outlet of the mold, and to "reflect" at the mold
walls. The initial locations of bubbles were assumed
to be uniformly distributed within the inlet surface
and the initial velocity was the same as the inlet ve
locity of molten steel.
For the boundary conditions of electric potential
calculation based on F L U E N T , the mold walls were
set to insulating wall boundary condition with zero
normal component of current density; the normal
gradient of current density was set to be zero at the
inlet and outlet surfaces.
1.1.2
Solution procedure
Solution process was divided into two parts.
Firstly, during the calculation procedure of electro
magnetic field based on ANSYS, a magnetic vector po
tential method was used to solve the Maxwell equations
and obtain the electromagnetic field for different cur
rent intensities of coils1-8-1. Then, the data files of the
magnetic induction intensity in the mold region were
exported to a data file according to a certain file
form. Secondly, all other fields were solved by
FLUENT. All coupled fields including flow field,
steel/slag interface, trajectories of argon gas bubbles
and magnetic field were solved, in which its own
MHD module needed to be activated and the magnet
ic field data file was loaded to the flow region in the
mold with a certain required data format. The pres

Vol. 20

sure-velocity coupling algorithm was PISO algorithm,

The trajectories of bubbles were solved using the
Random Walk model of DPM, and the influence of
turbulent fluctuation of velocity field on the turbu
lent diffusion effect of bubbles was considered. The
geometric reconstruction approach was used to re
present the steel/slag interface shape in order to ob
tain the most accurate interface pattern and the con
tinuum surface force (CSF) model was employed to
describe the effect ' surface tension1-9-1.
1. 2 Thermo-mechanical behaviors of solidifying shell
in mold
1.2.1
Microsegregation model
The physical properties of solidifying steel asso
ciated with the chemical composition and reflecting
the actual process of shell solidification in mold with
/ transformation are very important for describing
the solidifying characteristics of steel at high temper
ature precisely. In previous work1-18-1, based on the
regular hexagon transverse cross-section of dendrite
shape proposed by Y Ueshima et al Cl9] , a microseg
regation model of solute elements in mushy zone
with / transformation during steel solidification
was established by finite difference method. The
dendrite arm spacing of steel in the model was cho
sen as the primary dendrite arm spacing formula, =
"( is dendrite arm spacing, K, a, b are con
stants, v is cooling rate, and wc is carbon content),
proposed by M El-Bealy and B G ThomasC20] since it
is related to cooling rate and carbon content during
practical continuous casting. The average cooling
rate of mold, 10 C/s, was applied for the parameter
of cooling rate in the model.
Based on relationship of phase fraction and tem
perature obtained from the microsegregation model,
the properties of the peritectic steel such as thermal
conductivity, enthalpy, density and linear thermal
expansion coefficient in mushy zone with tempera
ture were determined by the formulas proposed by C
Li and B G Thomas cl3] as shown in previous
work1-211. It is noteworthy that the conductivity of
liquid steel was amplified 6. 0 times for accounting
the effect of convection heat transfer of strand in liq
uid zone and the arbitrary reference temperature of
linear thermal expansion, Tref, was defined as LIT
(Liquid Impenetrable Temperature) that the fraction
of solid phase equals 0. 884 determined by the previ
ous work1-18-1.
1. 2. 2 Mold/shell inter facial heat transfer model
The determination of heat flux boundary be-

Issue 3

Multiphase Flow and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviors of Solidifying Shell in Continuous Casting Mold

tween shell and mold precisely is the basis and key

step for numerically investigating the shell thermal
and mechanical behavior. Fig. 2 schematically shows
the process of shell solidifying and heat transfer in
mold. With the thermal contraction action of solidif
ying shell and mold flux, the air gap forms between
the interface of solidifying shell and mold flux.

Therefore, the components of heat transfer between

shell and mold mainly consisted of shell/mold flux
interfacial heat transfer, mold flux heat transfer, air
gap heat transfer, and mold flux/copper plate interfacial heat transfer. The thickness of every heat trans
fer medium layer changes dynamically for shell contrac
tion along the circumference and height of mold.
Interface

Mold flux

Mold

Shell

Mold
Interface (liermal
resistance

Shell

Air gap

Fig. 2

Schematic diagram of copper/shell interface and heat transfer process in mold

oped based on the displacement between shell sur

face and mold hot face as shell shrinkage, the dy
namic distributions of mold flux and air gap, and the
temperature distributions of shell surface and mold
hot face in the present work. The modelling process
of the model was shown in previous work [21] . The
thermo-physical properties of heat transfer medium
are given in Table 2 C22_24] .
1.2. 3 Finite element model
1) Heat transfer model
Based on the symmetrical assumption of shell
solidification in mold, a two-dimensional transient
heat transfer model for shell and mold was modeled,
and the governing equations can be expressed as fol
lows respectively:
dH(T)
AS(T)|^1 +^,U(T) 3T
(2)
dx
dy
T T
dt
3T
J?Uq " T ^ s o l "-Rair T-Rint
rr By Am dT)
(3)
'i
("It" ~dx
where, q is the interfacial heat flux between mold
3y
dx
where H(T) and A S (T) are the enthalpy and thermal
and shell; T s and Tm are shell surface temperature
conductivity of the peritectic. steel obtained from
and copper hot face temperature, respectively; and
Riiq > -Rsoi > -Rair and RiM , are the thermal resistances of chapter 1. 2. 1 with temperature that the chemical
the liquid flux, solid flux, air gap and mold/flux in
composition is shown in Table 3. p, c and Xm are the
terface, respectively, which have been expressed in
density, heat capacity and thermal conductivity of
1 213
previous publication - . Therefore, a new shell/mold
copper respectively as shown in Table 4. In the
interfacial heat flux model considering conduction
present study, 1. 0% was chosen for the mold nar
heat transfer and radiation heat transfer was devel
row face taper, while the two wide faces were parallel,
In order to establish the model more conveniently,
some assumptions were made as follows : 1 ) the
composition change between glassy layer and crys
talline layer in solid flux was ignored, and the mold
flux just consists of liquid with very good fluidity
and solid; 2) the state of mold flux is determined by
the shell surface temperature, copper plate hot face
temperature and its solidus temperature, and thick
ness of the flux is just dependent on shell surface
temperature and gap thickness between mold and
shell; 3) the deformation of mold flux due to solidi
fication was neglected, and its effect was treated by
introducing the interfacial thermal resistance be
tween mold and flux in the model. The formula of
interfacial heat flux between mold and shell can be
given as follows;

 10

J o u r n a l of I r o n a n d S t e e l R e s e a r c h ,

Table 2

International

V o l . 20

Thermal physical properties of flux

Description

Item

Shell

Emissivity

Unit

Valu

W - m"1 K"1

0.26

0.8

Thermal conductivity, &iiq

Absorption coefficient,

Liquid slag layer

51

Refractive index, nu,

1.58
W m"1 K

Thermal conductivity, kmi

1.625

Extinction coefficient, E^
Solid slag layer

1356

Emissivity, esol

0.9

Refractive index, n80i

1.59

Solidus temperature, T,!

Table 3

Air gap layer

Thermal conductivity, ajr

Mold

Emissivity, emoid

Chemical composition of peritectic steel

(mass percent,

%)

Si

Mn

0.15

0. 25

1. 5

0.015

0.008

Table 4
Material

Thermal properties of copper plate and cooling water

Thermal

Specific

conductivity/

heat/

( W m"1 K"1)

(J

k g ^ 1 K~

Density/

')

(kg m~3)

Copper

335 (298 K )

410

8 940

Copper

315 (393 K )

410

8 940

Copper

310 (623 K )

410

8 940

Nickel

82.9

460.6

8 910

0.597

4187

998

Water

1409
W m " 1 K-

0.06
0.4

where, is the heat conductivity coefficient of wa

ter; d is the hydraulic diameter of the water slots;
pw, ww, and cw are the density, velocity, viscosity
and specific heat of cooling water, respectively.
2) Stress model
Since the shell solidification in the mold subjects
to the deformations of elastic, thermal and plastic,
as well as the creep during practical continuous cast
ing, a rate dependent constitutive equation proposed
by L AnandC25] and S B Brown et alC26] was adopted in
this work, which can be written as follows:
[

e i e =Aexp

QA

sinh

(5)

* '

The evolution equations for s is

namely no taper.
The boundary conditions of heat transfer were
treated a s : 1) heat flux at cold face of steel backup
and symmetrical plane of slab and mold is 0; 2) shell
surface and copper hot face loaded the heat flux by
mold/shell interfacial heat transfer model dynamically;
3) the heat transfer between mold and cooling water
is determined by heat transfer coefficient, hw , as fol
lows" 23
Aw

^w/*w

= 0.023

Table 5
Parameter
io

(4)

Aw

1L

sign

exp

^xp

T
}<

QA

Specification for constitutive equation parameters

Unit

Initial value of s, deformation resistance

MPa

43

32514

s"1

1.0X10"

Activation energy/gas constant

Pre-exponential factor

Multiplier of stress

Strain rate sensitivity of stress

(6)

The meaning and value of the parameters in the

formula are listed in Table 5E27]. The elastic modulus
and Poison s ratio were determined by formulas re
gressed from the data measured by H Mizukami et
alC28] and M Uehara et al [ 2 9 ] , respectively.

Meaning

QA

ho

; = {h0

Valu

1.-15
0.147

Hardening/softening constant

MPa

1329

3"

Coefficient for deformation resistance saturation value

MPa

147.6

Strain rate sensitivity of saturation value

Strain rate sensitivity of hardening or softening

Time derivative of deformation resistance

0.068 69
1
MPa

Issue 3

Multiphase Flow and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviors of Solidifying Shell in Continuous Casting Mold

T h e b o u n d a r y conditions for stress model w e r e

given a s 1) t h e contact b e t w e e n shell surface and
mold hot face was rigid-to-flexible; 2 ) the effect of
mold n a r r o w face taper w a s t r e a t e d as displacement
increment as a function of height from steel bath level
to mold exit; 3) ferro-static p r e s s u r e was loaded on
solidification front at solid phase / , = 0. 884 with an
algorithm t h a t reject the "liquid element" dynamically
as solidification proceeded1-21-1. T h e value of the p r e s
sure P was determined as
P=pmgvct

t i m e , s.

Results and Discussion

2.1

Simulation results verification

Fig. 3 s h o w s the comparison of water model ex
perimental and simulated results in t h e mold. It is
obvious t h a t the flow fields and bubble trajectories
b o t h are in a good agreement in the t w o cases.
Fig. 4 s h o w s t h e predicted mold copper tempera
t u r e distributions at the positions of thermocouples
and corresponding measured t e m p e r a t u r e at t h e con
ditions of casting speed of 1. 4 m / m i n and solidus tem-

(7)

w h e r e , pm is d e n s i t y of m o l t e n s t e e l , k g / m 3 ; t is

Vc~2. 1 m/min, vt = 6 L/min.

Comparison of experimental (a) and predicted (b) flow and bubble trajectories in mold

Fig. 3
180 (a)

(b)

Thermocouple

160
"' 7 ^ - 1 """i *~~, l * ^ ! ,_
I**.' K'J
< - . ' ' . - . 1 \

140

\ \
tt \1
1

120

i i

Thermocouple A
- - Thermocouple B
- ThermocoupleC
-o Thermocouple A'
-o Thermocouple B'
-* Thermocouple C

l 1
\1

100
Upper row thermocouple

'\
,\

- - - Down row thermocouple

80

2:26:00

100
300
500
700
Distancefrommold wide face centerline/mm

160 (c)

2:27:40
Time

2:29:20

(d)

Thermocouple
140

y^~

^V%r^

D'
120

* " " " - - .

. - " "
1

Upper row thermocouple

100 - - - - Down row thermocouple

m
I

11

Thermocouple D
o Thermocouple D'

15
45
75
105
Distancefromnarrow centerline of slab/mm

2:26:00

2:27:40
Time

2:29:20

Fig. 4 Comparison of predicted temperature of mold copper plate at position of thermocouple installations and
corresponding measured temperature of wide face (a) , (b) and narrow face ( c ) , (d)

 12

Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International

perature of mold flux of 1136 'C. The calculated re

sults show that the temperature distributions both in
wide face and narrow face of mold copper plates are
in a good agreement.
2. 2 Behaviors of multiphase flow in mold
2. 2. 1 Basic characteristics of multiphase flow in
mold
Fig. 5 shows the flow fields at the center sym
metry planes of the mold. The free surface is defined
as the calm steel/slag interface, and black colour in
the tops of planes represents the liquid slag. It is
very influential on the flow pattern as the argon gas
flow rate is 4 L/min. Most of molten steel from the
SEN port directly flows upwards with the argon gas
bubbles, the eddy eye of the upper re-circulation
zone disappears and the re-circulating velocity is ob

Vol. 20

viously reduced as shown in Fig. 5 ( b ) . Fig. 5 (c)

shows the case with EMBR, and it can be seen that
the flow velocity of molten steel wholly decreases,
especially near the steel/slag interface and the me
niscus, and the area of re-circulation zones also de
creases. A small vortex flow opposite to the upper
re-circulating flow direction at the interface near the
side of SEN can be found. Fig. 5 (d) shows the case
with the double actions of EMBR and argon gas in
jection, where the re-circulating velocity in the up
per re-circulation zone and the vortex velocity of
vortex flow zone near the SEN increase evidently.
Obviously, argon gas injection could aggravate the
vortex intensity, thus the appropriate argon gas
flow rate with EMBR is crucial for keeping the sta
bility of steel/slag interface and preventing the oc
currence of slag entrapment.

uW>0))

Fig. 5

(a) Without argon gas injection and EMBRs (b) With argon gas injection ( , = 4 L/min) ;
(c) With EMBR ( Ju = 200 A, i L = 700 A) ; (d) With argon gas injection and EMBR.
Velocity fields at half thickness symmetric planes of mold for different flow control means ( vc = 2 . 1 m/min)

2. 2. 2 Wavy fluctuation height in mold and level

fluctuation
index
Since the flow and steel/slag interface behaviors
in the mold particularly in the case of applying dif
ferent in-mold flow-control methods have a very
close relation to the quality of slab and the perform
ance of casting, the flow pattern and the steel/slag
interface profiles for difierent flow-control means
have been numerically investigated 1 - 8-9] . T Teshima
et al1-30-1 presented the level fluctuation index of F
value to reflect the situation of mold flux entrapment
quantitatively by both water model and actual meas
urements in plant, which can be rewritten as
rr/QmQLfeQ sing)
1
...
F ~
4
'D
(8)
where, QL is flow rate of molten steel, m 3 / s ; ve is
penetrating velocity of main steel stream, m / s ; D is
the distance between penetrating point at the wall
and free surface, m; and is the steel stream pene
trating angle, ().

The physical meaning of each symbols of Eqn. (8)

is shown in Fig. 6.
In the present work, the F was employed to
study the effect of different flow-control methods
and parameters in mold.

WMold wide face width; aPort angle of SEN.

Fig. 6 Physical meaning of symbols in Eqn. (8)

Issue 3

Multiphase Flow and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviors of Solidifying Shell in Continuous Casting Mold

Fig. 7 s h o w s t h e relationship between F value

and argon gas flow rate or t h e m a x i m u m level fluc
tuation near meniscus in mold w i t h E M B R . It s h o w s
t h a t the value of F increases linearly w i t h t h e argon
gas flow r a t e , and with t h e increase of F v a l u e , the
m a x i m u m level fluctuation height of s t e e l / s l a g inter
face near meniscus turns upward to downward, which
s h o w s t h e linearly decreasing relationship. T h a t is
to s a y , the thickness of liquid flux near meniscus in
creases w i t h t h e F value as argon gas flow rate in
creases. T h i s figure indicates t h a t as the value of F
is in the range of 12 1 6 , t h e m a x i m u m level fluctu
ation near meniscus is no more t h a n 4 m m and the
s t e e l / s l a g interface will not expose to t h e air. T h e
relationship between F value and casting speed or
the m a x i m u m level fluctuation near meniscus w i t h
E M B R and argon gas bubbling in mold is s h o w n in
Fig. 8. It is obvious t h a t the value of F increases lin
early with casting speed. With the increase of F value,
the maximum level fluctuation height of steel/slag inter
face near meniscus t u r n s d o w n w a r d to u p w a r d ,
which s h o w s the linearly increasing relationship. That
is to say, with the increase of casting speed, the F value

r
2.7

1.5

Fig. 8

vc = 2. 1 m/min, = 200 A, i L = 700 A.

Fig. 7 Relationship between F value and argon |
flow rate or maximum level fluctuation near
meniscus in mold with EMBR

1 200

y / \ .

| 100
0

14

Fig. 9

900

Upper coil current

o Level fluctuation

15

16

/m

< 800

1 700

Z
s>
17

s^\.

0I

wer coil

300

. = 4. 0 L/min, Iu = 200 A, IL = 700 A.

Relationship between F value and casting speed or
maximum level fluctuation near meniscus with
EMBR and argon gas bubbling

F r o m the above a n a l y s i s , it is clear t h a t t h e F

value linearly increases approximately with argon gas

1
<

-10

Fig. 9 s h o w s the relationship between F values

and u p p e r / l o w e r coil current or t h e m a x i m u m level
fluctuation near meniscus in mold with E M B R and
argon gas bubbling. This figure shows that the value of
F increases linearly w i t h the upper or lower coil cur
r e n t , and w i t h t h e increase of F v a l u e , the maxi
m u m level fluctuation height of s t e e l / s l a g interface
near meniscus t u r n s from upward to d o w n w a r d ,
which s h o w s the semi-parabolic decreasing relation
ship. T h e thickness of liquid flux near meniscus in
creases w i t h t h e F value as coil c u r r e n t increases.
A s the value of F is in the range of 14 1 6 , the
m a x i m u m level fluctuation near meniscus is no more
t h a n 4 m m and the s t e e l / s l a g interface will not ex
pose to the air.

20

400 (a)

21

18

15
F value

increases and t h e thickness of liquid flux near menis

cus becomes thinner. A s the value of F is in the
range of 15 2 1 , t h e m a x i m u m level fluctuation near
meniscus is also no more t h a n 4 m m and the s l a g /
steel interface will not expose to the air.

-2
14
16
/"value

1.2
12

I'

10

Casting speed
Level fluctuation

A111 2.1
1.8

Gasflowrate
o Level fluctuation

13

F value

s
sa

500

14

-4l

Lower coil current

o Level fluctuation

15

16

X
17

18

(a) vc = 2. 1 m/min, JL = 700 Ai

(b) vc = 2. 1 m/min, iu = 200 A.
Relationship between F values and coil current or maximum level fluctuation near meniscus in
mold with EMBR and argon gas bubbling (4. 0 L/min)

Vol. 20

Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International

14

flow r a t e , casting speed or coil current intensity, and

t h e F value can reflect effectively t h e fluctuation of
s l a g / s t e e l interface near meniscus in t h e mold w i t h
E M B R and argon gas blowing. It is meaningful to
control the F value in t h e proper range for avoiding
violent fluctuation of s t e e l / s l a g interface and t h e en
t r a p m e n t of slag in mold.
2 . 3 Thermal behaviour of shell solidification in mold
2. 3. 1 Air gap
distribution
Fig. 10 s h o w s t h e air gap distribution around
shell corner along the direction of mold height and
shell circumference. U n d e r t h e casting conditions,
air gap foremost appears at the height of 160 m m be
low steel b a t h level at t h e shell corner in m o l d , and
p r e s e n t s different distribution characters from shell
wide face and n a r r o w face as s h o w n in Fig. 10 ( a ) .
0.8

(a)

On t h e wide face, t h e air gap g r o w s continuously in

the casting direction and spreads to t h e direction of
the wide face midst as t h e solidifying shell is moving
d o w n , because t h e compensation by mold taper for
shell shrinkage is lack and the mold flux at this r e
gion solidifies relatively early. However, the thick
ness of air gap from the narrow face (wide face corner)
to the m i d s t of wide face decreases r a t h e r rapidly as
the shell is moving down as s h o w n in Fig. 10 ( b ) .
T h e reason is t h a t the surface t e m p e r a t u r e of solidif
ying shell at t h e off-corner region of wide face is rel
atively h i g h , as s h o w n thereinafter, which makes
the solidification of mold flux l a g , and therefore the
formation of air gap is impeded. Compared to the
wide face, the air gap evolution on t h e n a r r o w face is
quite different. A t t h e initial solidification s t a g e , the
air gap increases rapidly since t h e heat contraction is

a Wide face corner

Narrow face corner

o 300 mm below steel bath level

o 500 mm below steel bath level
Mold exit

0.6
0.4
0.2

200
400
600
Distancefromsteel bath level/mm
Fig. 10

10
20
30
40
Distancefromshell narrow face/mm

Air gap thickness distribution at shell corner along mold height (a) and around shell circumference (b)

larger t h a n t h e compensation by t h e mold taper of

n a r r o w face. However, the thickness of air gap turns to
decrease at the height of 300 m m from t h e steel b a t h
level because t h e shell contraction decreases and the
mold n a r r o w face taper compensates continuously
until it moves d o w n to 500 m m below steel bath level,
and t h e n after t h e air g a p , it becomes stable.
2. 3. 2 Mold flux distribution
in slag channel
T h e mold flux distribution around shell corner
along t h e direction of mold height and shell circum
ference is s h o w n in Fig. 1 1 . T h e thickness of mold
flux changes gently at the height of 0 50 m m below
steel b a t h level as t h e shell contracts gently for its
high t e m p e r a t u r e . A s the shell moves d o w n , t h e in
creasing contraction of t h e shell due to its decreasing
temperature makes more liquid flux flow into the slag
channel between solidifying shell and mold copper plate,
and reaches maximum at the height of 160 mm below
steel bath level at shell corner firstly. As shell moves
d o w n c o n t i n u o u s l y , the thickness nearby the corners

1.2

0.8 -

Wide face corner

Wide (ace off-corner
Narrow face corner
Narrow face off-corner

0.4
a
o

0
Fig. 11

200
400
600
Distancefromsteel bath, level/mm

800

Mold flux distribution along mold height

of wide face and narrow face becomes stable gradually

because t h e surface t e m p e r a t u r e of solidifying shell
decreases below t h e mold flux solidus. H o w e v e r , in
t h e region of shell off-corner, the mold flux thick
ness increases continuously since t h e t e m p e r a t u r e in
this region is higher t h a n t h a t of t h e corner and the
liquid flux still can infiltrate the contraction gap un
til the shell moves to the height of 650 m m below

Issue 3

Multiphase Flow and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviors of Solidifying Shell in Continuous Casting Mold

the steel bath level. Such phenomena lead to the

thickness of mold flux firstly increasing and then de
creasing from shell corner to the midst. It is also ob
vious that the thickness of mold flux in shell narrow
face is wholly thicker than that of the wide face,
which will have a negative effect on the heat transfer
of narrow face.
2. 3. 3 Shell surface temperature
distribution
Fig. 12 shows the surface temperature distribu
tions of the solidifying shell near the corner along
the height of mold. At the initial solidification
stage, the surface temperatures of the shell on wide
face and narrow face are uniform. However, on the
shell corner, it decreases rapidly since the heat trans
fer is two-dimensional. As the cooled solidifying
shell is moving down then, the thermal contraction
begins to work. Under the function of mold oscilla
tion, mold flux infiltrates the gaps continuously be-

15

fore shell surface temperature falls below the melt

ing point of the flux, and the thermal resistance of
mold/shell interface increases in this region, there
fore the drop of temperature slows down. As the
shell moves down to 200 mm below steel bath level,
some hot spots form in the region of 1020 mm off the
shell corner. The longer the shell moves from the
bath level, the more remarkable the hot spots are.
The space of the hot spots expands from 10 20 mm
initially to 60 75 mm finally along shell circumfer
ence from its corner. The maximum temperature
difference between the off-corner and the wide face
midst or narrow face midst reaches 120 and 61 C at
mold exit, respectively. It is worth to note that the
temperature of wide face off-corner surface comes to
fluctuate at 200 mm above the mold exit, and it is
one of the most important factors leading to the slab
surface defects.

Fig. 12 Shell surface temperature distribution at wide face (a) and narrow face corner (b)
2. 4 Mechanical behaviour of shell solidification
Fig. 13 shows the maximum principal stress dis
tributions in the solidifying shell at the distance be
low steel bath level of 100, 300, 500 mm and mold
exit, respectively. The deformed geometries of shell
were magnified by 5 times for clearly showing the
difference. Under the typical peritectic steel casting
conditions, stress in shell surface layer is tensile
stress, while it is compressive stress in the solidifi
cation front. From shell surface to the solidification
front, the absolute value of the stress decreases
firstly and then increases. At the initial solidification
stage, the stress of solidifying shell is caused mainly
by thermal stress and concentrates in shell corner.
However, as the shell moves down, it deforms seri
ously due to the unsuitable mold taper adopted. The
taper of mold narrow face is linearly decreased along

the casting direction, which is not enough to com

pensate the contraction of solidified shell fully. So,
the mechanical stress becomes the main factor at the
height of 300 mm below steel bath level, and the
stress in shell distributes non-uniformly, as shown
in Fig. 13 ( b ) . Such a mold taper is not suitable for
peritectic steel continuous casting and a nonlinear
mold taper is necessary.

Conclusions

1) Both the argon gas blowing and EMBR have

great influences on flow and steel/slag interface in
continuous casting mold. Appropriate argon gas
flow rate with EMBR is crucial for keeping the sta
bility of steel/slag interface.
2) The level fluctuation index F can reflect the
situation of mold flux entrapment during continuous

Vol. 20

Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International

16

0.12

0.08 -

| 0.04
S
e

0.12

0.08 -

0.04 -

0.52
Fig. 13

0.54

0.56

0.58

0.60 0.62
0.50 0.52
0.54
Distance from slab wide face center/m

0.56

0.58

0.60

0.62

Maximum principal stress.of shell at various distances below steel bath level of 100 mm ( a ) ,
300 mm (b), 500 mm (c) and mold exit (d)

casting, and it has a linear relationship with operat

ing conditions such as argon gas flow r a t e , casting
speed and coil current i n t e n s i t y , which would be
helpful to the development and application of on-line
monitoring model for flux e n t r a p m e n t in mold.
3) Air gap in mold firstly forms at shell corner
and mainly concentrates in the region of 0 20 m m
nearby the corner. T h e air gap in wide face corner
g r o w s continuously, and its thickness is wholly thic
ker t h a n t h a t of n a r r o w face. Mold flux firstly solid
ifies at shell corner and distributes from corner to
the midst of wide face and n a r r o w face w i t h increas
ing firstly and t h e n decreasing. T h e thickness of
mold flux in n a r r o w face is thicker t h a n t h a t of the
wide face. Shell hot spots form in t h e region of 10
20 m m nearby the corner at 200 m m below steel bath
level firstly and expand t o 75 and 60 m m of wide face
and n a r r o w face nearby corner at mold exit respec
tively. T h e m a x i m u m t e m p e r a t u r e difference be
tween shell off-corner and its wide face midst and
narrow face midst reaches 120 and 61 *C , respectively.

4) Stress in the shell surface layer and solidifi

cation front is tensile stress and compressive stress
respectively, and the absolute value decreases firstly
and increases t h e n from shell surface to the solidifi
cation front. T h e s t r e s s of shell at initial solidifica
tion stage is governed by thermal s t r e s s , while the
mechanical stress becomes the main factor at lower
part of mold.
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