COUPLED REAL-TIME THERMO-MECHANICAL SOLIDIFICATION MODEL OF CONTINUOUSLY CAST STEEL

Current computational IT techniques allow to compute large complex multi-physical models and come up with a real-time solution. Due to this fact, a thermo-mechanical model for continuous steel casting can be created and used as a real-time crack prediction tool. Thermal and mechanical crack conditions must be evaluated to conclude whether the cast strand is of a sufficient quality suitable for its immediate next processing such as rolling. The previously developed solidification model BrDSM will be coupled with a newly developed mechanical stress-strain model. The crack criteria mentioned in this paper can be used as an optimization tool for the quality prediction of steel. Thus, this approach can be applied for the increase of the steel production due to the fast assessment of the strand quality based on the evaluation of critical crack conditions, which assure high quality steel. In the paper, the use of crack criteria as a quality predictor is outlined and the idea of the coupling between thermal and mechanical models is presented. The functionality of these models will be verified with data obtained from experimental measurements at a steel plant.