Calculation of Phase-Change Boundary Position in Continuous Casting

The problem of determination of the phase-change boundary position at the mathematical modeling of continuous ingot temperature field is considered. The description of the heat transfer process takes into account the dependence of the thermal physical characteristics on the temperature, so that the mathematical model is based on the nonlinear partial differential equations. The boundary position between liquid and solid phase is given by the temperatures equality condition and the Stefan condition for the two-dimensional case. The new method of calculation of the phase-change boundary position is proposed. This method based on the finite-differences with using explicit schemes and on the iteration method of solving of non-linear system equations. The proposed method of calculation is many times faster than the real time. So that it amenable to be used for model predictive control of continuous semifinished product solidification.