GOALI: Flow Dynamics and Inclusion Transport in Continuous Casting of Steel

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This Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project aims to improve the understanding of transient flow, inclusion transport and defect formation in the mold region during the continuous casting of steel slabs, through the development, validation, and application of fundamental computational models of transient fluid flow. Continued viability of the domestic steel industry depends upon improved efficiency and steel quality, relative to low cost imports. Lowering defects from internal inclusions is one way to achieve this, while simultaneously improving steel minimum strength, fatigue life, surface appearance, yield and energy efficiency (from reduced rejects). Continuous casting produces 96% of the 100 million tons of steel manufactured in the U.S. and is the last, and most important, processing step where inclusions can either be generated or removed. Plant observations have found that many serious quality problems, including inclusion entrapment, are directly associated with the flow pattern in the mold. Many mold process parameters, such as nozzle geometry and gas injection rate, are easy and inexpensive to change and yet have a profound influence on flow and corresponding quality. With many different operations and mold designs to optimize, the traditional trial and error approach is too costly. With this grant, computational models of transient flow in continuous casting will be applied to study the associated transport and entrapment of inclusion particles. The models will be calibrated, validated, and tested through water model experiments, steel plant trials, and metallographic measurements at the industrial partner, LTV Steel, and several other steel companies who are cosponsoring this research. The results will increase fundamental understanding of inclusion transport, and lead to improved mold flow patterns which minimize inclusion defects. Furthermore, the computational tools developed in this work can be applied to optimize flow in other processes.