Thermo-fluid Mathematical Modeling of Steel Slab Caster: Progress in 21st Century

Interaction of solidified shell and fluid flow inside the mold cavity governs the quality in the continuous slab casting of steel. A careful mathematical model can reveal the phenomena at play to take corrective action for better quality and productivity of the caster. These phenomena include turbulent flow in the nozzle and mold, heat transfer and solidification, the transport of bubbles and inclusion particles, multi-phase flow phenomena, the effect of electromagnetic forces, interfacial phenomena, interactions between the steel surface and the slag layers, the transport of solute elements and segregation etc. Substantial development has been done across the world in this direction during past few years. This paper reviews recent progress in modeling the thermo-fluid aspect of a steel caster.