Effect of mold corner structures on the fluid flow, heat transfer and inclusion motion in slab continuous casting molds

Abstract Mold corner structures will influence the multiphase flow, heat transfer and inclusion motion behaviors in the mold, which have significant impacts on the quality of strands. Herein, a three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer mold model was employed to investigate the effect of four different corner structures (right-angle, big-chamfered, multi-chamfered and fillet) on the multiphase flow, heat transfer and inclusion motion behaviors in the mold. The Volume of Fluid model was used to describe the molten steel and slag, while the Discrete Phase Model was employed to track the motion of non-metallic inclusions. The dynamic mesh was applied to simulate the mold oscillation. Results show that the chamfered structures can obviously increase the flow velocity around the strand corner, especially for the big-chamfered mold. The chamfered molds can remarkably improve the corner temperature of strands at the mold exit, and the fillet mold is the most effective. The temperature on the narrow and chamfered faces of the copper plate in the chamfered molds is lower than that in the right-angle mold. The maximum amplitude of temperature fluctuation of the meniscus reaches 4.6 K. The shell thickness around the strand corner in the chamfered molds is obviously thinner than that in the right-angle mold. In addition, the chamfered structures will increase the number of inclusion particles around the strand corner.