THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF STEELS ON THE NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF A CONTINUOUSLY CAST SLAB

The chemical composition of steels has a significant influence on the actual concasting process, and on the accuracy of its numerical simulation and optimization. The chemical composition of steel affects the thermophysical properties (heat conductivity, specific heat capacity and density in the solid and liquid states) and often requires more time than the actual numerical calculation of the temperature fields of a continuously cast steel slab. Therefore, an analytical study of these thermophysical properties was conducted. The order of importance within the actual process and the accuracy of the simulation were also determined. The order of significance of the chemical composition on the thermophysical properties was determined with respect to the metallurgical length. The analysis was performed by means of a so-called calculation experiment, i.e., by means of the original numerical continuously cast model developed by the authors of this paper. It is convenient to conduct such an analysis in order to facilitate the simulation of each individual case of continuously cast steel, thus enhancing the process of optimization.