A Numerical Solution Model for the Heat Transfer in Octagonal Billets

Abstract

In the quest for high-quality steel products, the need of cast billets with minimum surface and internal defects is of paramount importance. On the other hand, productivity is required to be as high as possible in order to reduce production cost. Different billet shapes have been applied with emphasis upon square, rectangular, and circular cross-sections. It is obvious that the best billet shape that minimizes surface and subsurface defects is the circular one. Nevertheless, this shape creates some problems with respect to handling and safety reasons. One recent attempt is to produce normal octagonal-shaped billets that appear to approach the circular shape albeit easier to handle. In this study, a numerical solution for the heat transfer during solidification in the continuous casting of octagonal billets has been carried out. The developed model deploys an implicit scheme in order to solve the differential equations of heat transfer under the appropriate boundary conditions in a section of an octagonal billet, assuming fully axisymmetric cooling of the bloom. The geometry of the octagonal billet plays an interesting role in the development of the heat transfer analysis. Based upon fundamental principles, a computer program has been developed for this purpose. Consequently, results from the numerical solution are presented and discussed.