International Journal of Cast Metals Research

ISSN: 1364-0461 (Print) 1743-1336 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ycmr20

Analysis of heat transfer and thermal stress in

continuous casting with mechanical reduction

Lei Zhang, Houfa Shen, Tianyou Huang & Baicheng Liu

To cite this article: Lei Zhang, Houfa Shen, Tianyou Huang & Baicheng Liu (2003)
Analysis of heat transfer and thermal stress in continuous casting with mechanical
reduction, International Journal of Cast Metals Research, 15:4, 355-359, DOI:
10.1080/13640461.2003.11819510

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13640461.2003.11819510

Published online: 29 Nov 2016.

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Analysis of heat transfer and thermal stress
in continuous casting with mechanical reduction
Lei ZHANG, Houfa SHEN*, Tianyou HUANG and Baicheng LIU
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China
An integrated analysis model of the heat transfer
and thermal stress based on the FDM and FEM
has been developed for continuous casting with
the mechanical reduction. The thickness
reduction, and the internal heat source during
solidification of the slab are taken into account.
Temperature distribution and cooling history
have been calculated for the multi-component
steel slab using a back-diffusion equation. The
depth of the liquid core to the meniscus reduces,
and temperatures both at the surface and the
center in the lower region of the slab decrease
with increasing of the liquid core reduction rate
in continuous casting. The surface temperature
rebounds after the slab passes the chilling
regions such as the mold and the spray zone. A
combined thermo-elastic-plastic model has been
employed to address the thermal stress evolution
in the mold and the mechanical reduction
regions of continuous casting. The deformation
of strand as well as the air gap between the mold
and the solidifying steel shell, are numerically
simulated. The result predicted indicates a
consistence with the values obtained by
theoretical analysis.
Keywords: Heat Transfer, Thermal Stress, Continuous Casting,
Mechanical Reduction, Numerical Simulation
Introduction
To save resources and energy in hot rolled strip plants,
different intensive continuous casting and rolling
processes, such as ISP (In-line Strip Production), CSP
(Compact Strip Production), QSP (Quality Strip
Production), etc., have been widely utilized by
combining the continuous caster and the rolling mills 1•2 .
Liquid Core Reduction (LCR) technology is currently
adopted to reduce the thickness of strand below a mold,
while its core is still in a liquid state, for the
improvement of external and internal properties of slab
as well as for the simplification of components
arrangement and operations related 3 .
Optimizing the process parameters based on
knowledge leads not only the increment of productivity
but also the elimination of metallurgical defects such as
porosity, macrosegregation and cracks in continuous
casting 4. 7 .
*Author for correspondence
E-mail: shen@tsinghua.edu.cn
lnt. J. Cast Metals Res., 2002, 15, 355-359
Heat transfer and thermal stress in conventional
continuous casting have been immensely investigated in
numerous studies. However, reports on the large
deformation of slab during the mechanical reduction
process in continuous casting and the related thermal
stress are limited. At the same time, understandings of
the temperature variation and the evolution of solid shell
during the liquid core reduction process are still required
1,3
The paper intends to set up a three-dimensional
thermomechanical coupled model for continuous casting
with consideration of the thickness reduction. It will be
helpful for the analysis of the formation of internal
cracks, as well as for the optimization of the process in
hot rolled strip production.
Model description
Thermal analysis
A steady-state condition is assumed for the calculation of
solidification and heat transfer in continuous thin-slab
casting with mechanical soft reduction. The calculation
domain is the whole slab volume with coordinate axes x
in thickness, y in width, and z in casting direction starting
from the meniscus.
The energy equilibrium equation in continuous casting
process is given as following
V ar a( arJ +a- ( arJ +S
pep-=- keff- keff- (l)
az ax ax ay ay
in which
)(T- ~ef )]
s =V a(ps fs) [L + (cPl - Cps ( 2)
az
where V is the local moving speed of strand in m/s, T is
temperature in K, p is density in kg/m3 , cp is specific heat
in J/kg·K, keffis thermal conductivity in W/m·K, S is the
energy source term in W/m3 , Is is solid fraction, L is
latent heat in J/kg, Tref is reference value, and subscripts s
and 1 denote solid and liquid, respectively. The
relationship between the solid fraction and temperature
during solidification is a function of cooling rate and
composition as determined through a back diffusion
model 7
 Analysis of heat transfer and thermal stress in continuous casting with mechanical reduction Zhang, Shen, Huang and Liu

(a) on the surface (b) in mid-width section

Fig. 1 Temperature distribution of thickness-reduced slab

where C is the concentration of the i-th element during (6)

the solidification process; K is the partition coefficient; D
is the solute diffusion coefficient in m2/s; and A.2 is the
secondary arm spacing in m.
Using a control volume - finite difference approach
and ADI method 8, the energy equation combining the
back diffusion equation is numerically solved with
specific boundary conditions for continuous thin-slab
casting.
Deformation and stress model
The fundamental FEM equation for the calculation of
displacement of strand during mechanical reduction is
derived from the virtual work theory 4 ' 5 , as shown in
following
where [De] is the elastic stress-strain matrix; ~ {E} is the
total strain increment; and ~ {Eh is thermal strain
increment caused by temperature variation in the
foregoing thermal model, as
d[Dert
Ll{e}r = ({a}+ dT {o"})LIT (7)
In the plastic deformation range, the expression of
stress-strain relationship is as following
Ll{a} = [ Dep ](.d{e}- Ll{e}r) + Ll{a h (8)
where [Dep] is the elastic-plastic stress-strain matrix, and
~ {cr} T is thermal stress increment as

[Kh Ll{£5} = LI{R} (4)

CJa- CJH , {CJa- }T CJa-
Ll{a}T =([D) a{a} (JT LIT) I (HT+ a{a} (D) a{a}) (9)
[Kh =[K]cr +[K]s +[K]L (5)

where ~{R} is the increment of equivalent load and
~{t:>}is the increment of displacement. The stiffness
matrix [Kh is the sum of contributions of the stress [KJcr,
the small displacement [KJs and the large displacement
[KJL·
Thermo-elastic-plastic constitutive model is employed
to calculate the stress and strain during continuous
thin-slab casting. In the elastic deformation range, the
stress-strain satisfies the following expression
356
Coupling the thermal analysis model, strain and stress
are solved in thickness reduced slab based on the large
deformation theory and updated Lagrangian method 5 •
Results and discussion
Three-dimensional heat transfer and solidification model
gives the temperature distribution for a thin slab with the
Int. J. Cast Metals Res., 2002, 15, 355-359
 Zhang, Shen, Huang and Liu Analysis of heat transfer and thermal stress in continuous casting with mechanical reduction

1500 ORO-T
+R1-T
1400 .R2-T
• R3-T
1300 ~R4-T
()
0
.6. R5-T
~
::J 1200 DR6-T
"§
Q)
a.
E 1100
Q)
f-

1000

900
End of spray zone

800
0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Distance to Meniscus I m

Fig. 2 Comparison of predicted and theoretical cooling curves during soft reduction

initial thickness of 0.06 m and the width of 0.95 m, as
shown in Fig. 1. The length of mold is about 1 m. The
spray zone starts at the exit of the mold and ends at 6 m
from the meniscus. The thickness reduction starts at a 1
m distance and ends at 3 m from the meniscus with the
reduction of 0.012 m (final thickness 0.048 m). Casting
speed is 2.5 m/rnin, pouring temperature is 1823 K, and
the steel grade is AISI 430 (C 0.12, Si 0.75, Mn 1.0, P
0.04, S 0.03, Ni 0.6, and Cr 16-18 wt pet). The
temperature at the edge of the slab is comparatively low
because of the edge effects, and the surface temperature
variation along the width in the center is small because
the width-thickness ratio of the slab is large (Fig. la).
The solid shell of the slab grows towards the center along
conjunction of regions, for example, the exits of the mold
and the spray zone, because the cooling strength
decreases afterwards. In the lower region of the slab,
both the center temperature and the surface temperature
at the same distance to the meniscus decrease as the
liquid core reduction is applied, and the temperature
decrement is contributed to the increment of cooling rate
caused by the thickness reduction. The calculated
~----------------------40
Reduction in steps of 2 mm

oRO-T
+R1-T
I
y
.o~.R2-T
the casting direction (Fig. 1b). The lengths of pure liquid •R3-T
core (fs=O, TL= 1774 K) and quasi liquid-solid core ifs= 1, oR4-T 2
t-R5-T
Ts=1687 K) from the meniscus are 1.1 m and 3.7 m, lJR6-T
respectively.
Fig. 2 illustrates a series of cooling curves at the center
and the surface in mid-width of the slab with the
thickness reduction in steps of2 mm (in order ofRO, Rl,
R2, R3, R4, R5, R6), the corresponding surface data 4
obtained from the theoretical analysis and the
measurements 2 are added in the plot by using different
symbols as shown in the legend (with -T as suffix). The ...:..R;.:.,6,.:...:R5=,R;'-'47-,R'-='3,.:...:R2"':,R;'-'1.::..,R:.:..Ot+ll+i-++ S
other process parameters are same as in Fig. 1. After the Slab surface
superheat is extracted from the liquid core, the center
temperature of the slab maintains in the liquidus plateau Center
for a long time because of the latent heat released during
the solidification, and then it decreases smoothly in the
Slab Half Thickness I mm
solid region. In the mold region, the surface temperature
of the slab decreases quickly due to the intensive cooling
Fig. 3 Effect of reduction rate on the position
strength of the water-cooled copper mold. In the second
cooling region, the surface temperature rebounds at the of liquid core

Int. J. Cast Metals Res., 2002, 15, 355-359 357

 Analysis of heat transfer and thermal stress in continuous casting with mechanical reduction
temperature results are consistent with theoretical and
practical ones. Figure 3 presents the effect of the
reduction rate on the sump (final solidifying position,
fs=l) in mid-width of the slab with the same condition as
in Fig. 2. It is evident that the depth of solid shell to the
meniscus decreases with increasing of the reduction rate,
and these simulated results also agree with theoretical
values 2 •
Air gap Mold
Half width
Fig. 4 Deformation of solid shell along width (in
mm) at the mold exit
Using the thermalmechanical model, air gap is found
between the solid shell and mold especially near the
corner in Fig. 4, because of the deformation of solid shell
caused by thermal compression. Similar deformation
tendency promotes during the thickness reduction, while
larger displacement occurs especially in width due to
compression force applied. The tensile stress occurs in
the outer surface of slab and the compress stress in the
interface between mushy zone and solid shell where the
plastic deformation generates. Fig. S shows the evolution
of equivalent Von Mises stress along the casting direction
near the narrow face and quarter width of slab with
reduced thickness of 3 mm in each wide face. In each
position, six nodes evenly distributed in thickness are
chosen as noted in the legends of Figs. Sa and b,
respectively. In the mold region, the thermal stresses at
the edge are almost same (Fig. Sa), because the nodes
(Cl-6) are sited in solid shell. As increasing of distance
to the meniscus during thickness reduction, the stress at
the narrow face increases with a maximum value at the
corner (node Cl), which indicates that corner crack
might form if the stress is over the criteria. The
difference of stresses along the thickness becomes large
after the thickness reduction is applied. Similar stress
-250
t1l
a_
~ "'
u e_100
Ul
Ul
200
~
half-width
Corner
U5
Ul
Q.)
150
Ul
~ ~
c 100
~ > 40
c c
Q.)
ro 50
-~ Mold Reduction
0 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Distance to Meniscus (mm)
(a) at the edge
Fig. 5 The evolution of equivalent Von Mises stress along the casting direction of slab
358
Zhang, Shen, Huang and Liu
variation is found at the quarter width (nodes QWl-6) in
Fig. Sb. The temperature gradient along the thickness is
larger than that at the edge before thickness reduction,
and the stress difference is large in Fig. Sb. However, the
stress in the mushy zone during thickness reduction may
fluctuate due to the discontinuous variation of solid
fraction (such as at nodes QWS, 6), which is influenced
by the cooling strength of spray on the slab surface.
Conclusions
A three-dimensional heat transfer and thermal stress
model for continuous casting of multi-component steel
has been developed taking into count the thickness
reduction. The source term in the solidification of
continuous casting is treated according to the relationship
of cooling history and solidifying concentration.
Temperature and solid fraction in thickness-reduced
slab are calculated. The surface temperature may rebound
when the cooling strength decreases along the caster.
After the liquid core reduction is applied in continuous
casting, both the center temperature and the surface
temperature in the lower region of the slab decrease
because of cooling rate increased. The depth of liquid
core to the meniscus decreases as the reduction rate
increases. The simulated results show an agreement with
those obtained from theoretical analysis and
measurements. A combined thermo-elastic-plastic model
has been employed to address the thermal stress
evolution in the mold and the mechanical reduction
regions of continuous casting. The air gap between the
mold and the solidifying steel shell, as well as the
deformation of strand are numerically simulated. The
detail work of deformation and mush movement during
the thickness reduction still requires further investigation.
Acknowledgments
The work is financially supported by the National
NSFC-BaoSteel Conjunct Foundation (No. S0174031).
-120
ro
ll.
Ul
Ul
~
U5 80
Ul
Q.)
Ul
60
c
0
Q)
Cii
-~ 20
::I
o-
w
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Distance to Meniscus (mm)
(b) in quarter width
lnt. J. Cast Metals Res., 2002, 15, 355-359
Zhang, Shen, Huang and Liu Analysis of heat transfer and thermal stress in continuous casting with mechanical reduction
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