State of the art in high-temperature mold simulator study of initial solidification in continuous-casting mold

Continuous casting technique has been widely used for the production of crude steel worldwide. However, surface defects of steel strand often occur during the continuous casting process, which need to be removed before rolling process, resulting in the loss of yield, productivity and energy. Additionally, the better surface quality of strand is required for the development hot charging rolling technique, thin slab casting technique and strip casting technique. Therefore, it is necessary to study initial solidification of molten steel in continuous-casting mold, as it is the origin of steel strand and determines the strand surface quality. Extensive past works related the initial solidification of molten steel in mold have been conducted, such as stress and strain state of shell, heat transfer between mold and shell, solute segregation of shell, fluid flow of molten steel, infiltration and entrapment of molten slag, entrapment of bubbles and inclusion in shell, and its research methods can be generally divided into four categories: plant experiment, pilot caster experiment, mathematical simulation and mold simulator. Compared with other methods, mold simulator has great advantage in the study of initial solidification in the view of economy and simulation. In this paper, the development history of mold simulator and extensive results from mold simulator study are summarized with the aim to provide direction for the future mold simulator study of initial solidification, and to improve the understanding of this important phenomenon. © 2019 Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia. All rights reserved.