SIMULATION OF THERMAL BEHAVIOR DURING STEEL SOLIDIFICATION IN SLAB CONTINUOUS CASTING MOLD I. Mathematical Model

Thermal behavior of the solidifying shell in continuous casting mold is very important to final steel products. In the present work, one two-dimension transient thermal-mechanical coupling finite element model was developed to simulate the thermal behavior of steel solidifying in slab continuous casting mold by using the sequential coupling method. In this model, in order to get the physical properties of steel at high temperature, a microsegregation model which would give the relationship of phase fractions and temperature for acquiring the physical properties with delta/gamma transformation in mushy zone was established. And the heat flux was obtained according to the displacement between the surface of solidifying shell and the hot face of mold as solidification contraction, the liquid/solid structure and distribution of mold flux, the temperature distribution of slab surface and mold hot face, and air gap distribution. In addition, the rate-dependent elastic-viscoplastic constitutive equation was applied to account for the evolution of shell stress in the mold.