Simulation of Power Efficient Cooling Technology for Continuously Cast Bars

The article describes a power efficient technology, allowing to preserve and maintain the heat content in a continuously cast bar at the production line “Continuous Casting Machine – Rolling Mill”. It considers a possibility of obtaining the maximum heat content in the continuously cast bar by means of rational cooling schedules in the secondary cooling zone. In order to maintain the achieved heat content in the bar, it is proposed to utilize heat insulation of the bar in the air cooling zone prior to its cutting-to-length. The article describes the design of the heat insulating shell in the CCM process scheme and the materials to be used for it. To analyze the interaction of heat flows between the bar and the shell in the heat insulation zone, the author has made a thermal balance of this zone. A mathematical model of the concast bar cooling with due consideration of the heat insulation zone and its implementation by means of numerical methods is described here. The application of numerical simulation has allowed to predict rational cooling schedules for the continuously cast bar and to determine the heat content of the bar at the exit from the continuous casting machine with respect to the heat insulation. According to the results of the simulation, there have been plotted the charts of temperature distribution along the CCM length, comparing the air cooling of the bar and its thermal conditioning in the heat insulation zone. These results confirm the effectiveness of utilizing heat insulation for maintaining the maximum heat content of the bar, which makes it possible to reduce the power costs for its heating prior to the rolling.