Abstract
A computational thermo-mechanical model has been developed to simulate the continuous casting of shaped sections, such as used for steel thin slabs. A general form of the transient heat equation including latent-heat from phase transformations such as solidification and other temperature-dependent properties is solved numerically for the temperature field history. The resulting thermal stresses are solved by integrating the highly nonlinear thermo-elastic-viscoplastic contitutive equations using a two-level method. The procedure has been implemented into Abaqus, (Abaqus Inc., 2005) using a user-defined subroutine (UMAT) to integrate the constitutive equations at the local level (Koric, 2006). The model is validated both with a semi-analytical solution from Weiner and Boley (Weiner, 1963) as well as with an in-house finite element code CON2D (Li, 2004, Zhu, 1993) specialized in thermo-mechanical modeling of continuous casting. The model is applied to simulate a 3D transverse section of the thin slab caster with a funnel, known for a complex geometry, with actual temperature dependant properties and realistic operating conditions as it moves down the mold. It has provided new valuable insights into a complex 3D mechanical state of transverse and axial stress of the solidifying shell retracted by the funnel geometry.
Original language | English (US) |
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Number of pages | 15 |
State | Published - 2007 |
Keywords
- material processing
- continuous casting
- finite elements
- Abaqus
- UMAT
- CON2D
- fixed grid
- solidification
- thin slab casting with funnel