NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF THE INSULATION THICKNESS ON THE DEGREE OF NON-UNIFORMITY OF THE BILLET TEMPERATURE

The degree of non-uniformity of the billet temperature subjected to the radiative heat loss to the discharge door with different insulation thicknesses is investigated in this present study. The 2-D steady-state heat conduction for the billet subjected to different heat fluxes is solved by being transformed into a dimensionless form. The Gauss-Seidel iterative method for a finite volume discretization of the billet is employed to obtain the temperature distribution of the billet. The numerical result is validated by comparing with the field measurement data. A qualitative agreement between these two is observed. An effect of different insulation thicknesses on the heat-transfer characteristics and the degree of non-uniformity of the billet temperature is examined. In case of the replaced 50 mm thick insulation of the discharge door, the radiative heat loss to the discharge door is reduced by 49% with the replaced insulation, and the degree of non-uniformity of the billet temperature is decreased by 23 degrees C.