Experimental Study and Calculation of Boiling Heat Transfer on Steel Plates During Runout Table Operation

AbstractWithin a hot strip steel mill, red hot steel is hot rolled into a long continuous slab that is led onto what is called the runout table. Temperatures of the steel at the beginning of this table are around 900 °C. Above and below the runout table are banks of water jets, sprays or water curtains that rapidly cool the steel slab. The heat transfer process itself may be considered one of the most complicated in the industrial world. The cooling process that occurs on the runout table is crucial and governs the final mechanical properties and flatness of a steel strip. However, very limited data of industrial conditions has been available and that which is available is poorly understood. To study heat transfer during runout table cooling, an industrial scale pilot runout table facility was constructed at the University of British Columbia (UBC). This paper describes the experimental details, data acquisition and data handling techniques for steel plates during water jet impingement cooling by one circ...