Coupled turbulent flow, heat, and solute transport in continuous casting processes

A fully coupled fluid flow, heat, and solute transport model was developed to analyze turbulent flow, solidification, and evolution of macrosegregation in a continuous billet caster. Transport equations of total mass, momentum, energy, and species for a binary iron-carbon alloy system were solved using a continuum model, wherein the equations are valid for the solid, liquid, and mushy zones in the casting. A modified version of the low-Reynolds number k- epsilon model was adopted to incorporate turbulence effects on transport processes in the system. A control-volume-based finite-difference procedure was employed to solve the conservation equations associated with appropriate boundary conditions. Because of high nonlinearity of the system of equations, a number of techniques were used to accelerate the convergence process. The effects of the parameters such as casting speed, steel grade, nozzle configuration on flow pattern, solidification profile, and carbon segregation were investigated. From the computer flow pattern, the trajectory of inclusion particles, and the density distribution of the particles, was calculated. Some of the computed results were compared with available experimental measurements, and reasonable agreements were obtained.