Innovative Low Melting Liquid Metal Model for Optimizing Argon Injection Practices during Steelmaking and Continuous Casting for Productivity and Quality Improvements

由于客户提出了严格的质量要求，钢铁制造商在不断提高生产率的同时，也在保持高质量的连铸钢坯。然而，生产率的提高对铸坯质量有不利影响，缺陷和废品对生产商的底线有重大影响。控制连铸过程中的流动是保证钢水清洁、减少缺陷的关键参数之一。物理和数学建模是理解和优化连铸过程中流体流动的重要工具。然而，理解气泡和多相流并不是一项容易的任务，传统的水模拟技术有一定的局限性。水模型的使用是合理的，并允许应用一些成熟的测量方法。然而，将这些结果推广到钢液流动时，必须仔细考虑流动参数(Re、Pr、Gr、Ha等)的真实值。都很难相遇。在许多情况下，例如，对于具有强烈温度梯度的液态金属流动，对于两相流动，当然对于电磁场的应用，通过水实验无法正确地模拟流动现象。然而，在使用低熔点金属时(如GaInSn合金、玫瑰金属、野外金属等)。这些参数更接近于实际的钢/Ar系统，因此气泡动力学和多相流模式有望比水模型更真实。该项目将涉及在炼钢连铸中产生泡状流和多相流领域的基础知识，并将其应用于提高AMDS平板产品的产品质量。本研究计划将利用物理模拟方法来优化连铸和钢包搅拌操作中的注气。在连铸机上，项目成果有望提高拉拔和熨烫(D&I)和超低碳(ULC)钢的最大拉速。通过提高钢水和钢液的质量，每年可节约成本超过1000万美元。

Steelmakers are under constant pressure to increase productivity, and simultaneously maintain high quality of continuously cast steel slabs because of stringent quality demands imposed by their customers. However, increasing productivity has detrimental effects on slab quality, and defects and rejections have a major impact on the producers bottom-line. Controlling fluid flows in continuous casting is one of the key parameters to ensure cleaner steel and reduce defects. Physical and mathematical modeling is an essential tool to understand and optimize fluid flows in continuous casting. However, understanding bubbly and multiphase flows is not an easy task and traditional techniques like water modeling have certain limitations. The use of water models is reasonable and allows for applying a number of well-established measuring methods. However, a generalization of those results to liquid steel flows has to be considered carefully as the true values of flow parameters (Re, Pr, Gr, Ha, etc.) are difficult to meet. In many cases, e.g. for liquid metal flows with strong temperature gradients, for two-phase flows, and of course for applications of electromagnetic fields, the flow phenomena cannot be modeled correctly by means of water experiments. However, on using low melting point metals like (GaInSn alloys, Rose Metal, Field Metal etc.) these parameters are closer to the real steel/Ar system and hence the bubble dynamics and multiphase flow patterns are expected to be more realistic than water modeling. This project will deal with generating fundamental knowledge in the area of bubbly and multiphase flows in steelmaking continuous casting, and its application to improve product quality for AMDs flat products. This research program will utilize physical modeling approach to optimize argon injection during continuous casting and ladle stirring operations. At the caster, the project outcomes are expected to enable the increase of maximum casting speed of drawn & ironed (D&I) and ultra-low carbon (ULC) steel grades. The cost saving arising from improving both liquid and solid steel quality is expected to exceed $10 million/year.