Correlation for Mold Heat Flux Measured in a Thin Slab Casting Mold

Maintaining appropriate heat transfer in the steel continuous casting mold is critical to strand surface quality , mold life , casting productivity [5] and operating safety in preventing breakouts . Considerable research on mold heat transfer has been based on computational modeling and numerical simulations. However, with advances in mold instrumentation and data collection, plant measurements can be analyzed to investigate these phenomena in actual operation. Most research on this topic investigated the effect of mold heat transfer on quality and breakouts considering a particular casting variable, such as mold powder properties, casting speed, or steel composition . Xia et al [7] investigated the dependence of integral heat flux on these casting variables, and used the results to analyze breakouts. Cicutti et al [8] developed an equation to predict mold heat flux (averaged over the hot face) as a function of these casting variables by performing multiple regression using data collected from a conventional slab caster producing low and medium carbon steels. Hetch et al [9] studied the effect of super heat, oscillation mark depth and mold powder consumption in addition to the effect of steel composition on mold heat removal, and investigated surface quality of crack sensitive steel grades as a function of mold heat flux. These papers all studied conventional slab casters. Santillana [10] et al studied the effect of casting powder and mold plate thickness on mold heat transfer in a thin slab caster, using plant measurements and the CON1D model to simulate temperature in the strand and mold.