Optimal control of secondary cooling for medium thickness slab continuous casting

Abstract

A software to simulate the solidification, heat transfer and water flowrate distribution in slab continuous casting was developed by establishing a mathematical model for the heat transfer and solidification in medium thickness slab casting. This model was validated by pin shooting and surface temperature measurement experiments. A reasonable target surface control temperature was found by testing the high temperature mechanical properties of Nb bearing ship plate steel, and then the water flowrate of each loop of the secondary cooling zone was determined by the software. The influence of uneven secondary cooling in the slab width direction on the quality of the slab was also investigated, which provided data for the optimisation of the secondary cooling of the slab caster. On the basis of the above research, an optimisation scheme for a secondary cooling system was proposed. Experimental results showed that the quality of the slab was significantly improved after optimisation. The centreline macrosegregation was reduced, and the ratio of equiaxed grains was increased by 3·18%. In addition, the transverse cracking of the slab was almost eliminated.

Keywords:

• Slab continuous casting
• Mathematical model
• Secondary cooling optimisation
• Ship plate steel

The authors are grateful for the grants received from the New Century Excellent Talents Program of the Ministry of Education, China (grant no. NCET07-0067) and the National Natural Science Foundation (grant no. 51074023).