Partial Model Approach for Efficient and Accurate Prediction of the Forced Convection Coefficient in a Continuous Casting Mold

Heat transfer in a continuous casting mold is produced through interfacial heat fluxes from the molten steel to the mold hot-face and convection between the mold and water. Although conventional methods based on empirical correlations are advantageous in terms of computational cost, they are not capable of capturing detailed cooling effects. Although, computational fluid dynamics methods coupled with a heat transfer analysis can provide detailed and accurate distributions of the heat transfer phenomenon in the continuous casting mold, the geometric complexity and associated computational difficulties hinder the practical use. To overcome the difficulties, in the present study, the characteristics of the forced convection coefficient in a typical casting mold is firstly identified. Based on the understanding of the heat transfer characteristics, a partial model approach where the conjugate fluid and heat transfer analysis is conducted only for a selected portion of the mold, and which is capable of providing the forced convection coefficient accurately and efficiently is proposed. The proposed method is found to be capable of predicting the forced convection coefficient and the temperature with an error of less than 2 pct from those of a full model conjugate fluid-heat transfer analysis.