Analysis of variability and non-uniformity of mould heat extraction for round billet continuous casting in plant trials

Abstract

Maintaining a stable and uniform heat transfer from steel shell to mould is important to produce high quality casting billet. In the present paper, a large amount of measured data of heat flux and temperature for round billet continuous casting mould from a plant trial has been analysed to shed light on the variability and non-uniformity of mould heat transfer around the perimeter. The results show that the variability and non-uniformity of heat extraction from the steel through the mould is affected slightly by operational parameters, such as pouring temperature, casting speed, meniscus, electromagnetic stirring current, but strongly by the steel carbon content and mould powder type. The installation of the mould in caster machine determines the magnitude of non-uniformity of heat transfer to a great extent. The relative root mean square (rRMS) of mould heat flux, presenting the variability and non-uniformity of mould heat transfer around the perimeter in transverse section, has wider range of variation and higher mean value compared with that of temperature. When the abnormality of heat transfer happens, such as deposit, the non-uniformity of mould heat transfer is also studied.