DETERMINATION OF THERMAL PARAMETERS IN THE PRIMARY COOLING ZONE OF THE CCS

The present paper is focused on the mathematical and graphical determination of temperature and thermal parameters depending on the heat dissipation from solidifying steel in the mould, respectively in the primary cooling zone of continuous casting of steel (CCS). The main task of the primary cooling is mainly to remove heat from the solidifying steel, therefore knowledge of the temperature fields in the precast and mould is important. As part of the present research to evaluate the thermal performance of the mould, the heat flux density dependencies q between the steel and the cooling water in the mould were expressed in the primary cooling region. The cooling water parameters and temperature gradients along the height and perimeter of the working surface of a copper mould insert of square cross-section of 150 x 150 mm and 1 m long were used to determine the heat removal rate from the solidifying steel. The temperature and thermal parameters were determined for the solidification and precooling tasks for two grades of steel with carbon contents of 0.18 wt.% and 0.83 wt.%. Casting speeds were chosen to range from 2.1 m center dot min(-1) to 2.7 m center dot min(-1) and casting temperatures from 1500 degrees C to 1550 degrees C. The obtained dependencies were used for numerical simulation in the ProCAST environment.