Effects of mold electromagnetic stirring on heat transfer, species transfer and solidification characteristics of continuous casting round billet

Abstract

In this study, the temperature distribution, species transfer, and solidification behavior in round billet continuous casting with mold electromagnetic stirring (M-EMS) was numerically investigated. The joule heat induced by the M-EMS and the liquid fraction profiles in the mushy zone were observed, whereby it was found that increasing current intensity caused further increase in electromagnetic force, which reduced the impact depth of liquid steel while accelerating the dissipation of superheat. The high liquid fraction in the mushy zone at the exit of the secondary cooling zone were 68.1% (case 1) and 77.1% (case 6). The central carbon contents of the round billets were 0.337 wt% (case 1) and 0.335 wt% (case 6). Moreover, the proportion of solidification microstructure and secondary dendrite arm spacing of the round billet samples were compared, which revealed that increasing the current intensity, casting speed, and cooling intensity, were all conducive to improving the uniformity of carbon distribution and compactness of the solidification structure.