Thermo-mechanical behaviour analysis of slab corner during special steel continuous casting

The corner crack is an important issue during special steel continuous casting. To comprehensively investigate the heat transfer, stress, and shrinkage behaviours of slab corner, a full-scale thermo-mechanical model of a slab and its mould was developed, the inverse algorithm was applied to the model. The model was validated by comparing the calculated data with the measured data in the plant trials. The results showed that the thermo-mechanical behaviours of the slab corner showed a similar tendency but were not the same, which reflected the necessity of building a full-scale model. There exists 'hot spots' at the slab off-corner region, and its position moved away from the corner along the casting direction, which affects the temperature and stress distributions. The maximum stress value reached approximately 16 MPa at the mould exit. The model provides an in-depth understanding of slab corner during special steel continuous casting.