Modeling of heat transfer in slit canal of continuous casting machines with promising lead-bismuth crystallizer

Steel production is one of the significant consumers of electricity in our country, where energy-efficient technologies are being actively introduced. In steel pouring, continuous casting machines are commonly used, in which steel is continuously poured into a water-cooled mold, also called a mold. The amount of heat energy removed during the cooling of steel in molds may well make it possible to reduce electricity costs in steel production by up to 40 %. One of the ways to reduce heat losses in the mold is the utilization of the waste heat into electricity and its further use. This is possible if the following conditions are met: the use of liquid metal as a refrigerant, an increase in temperature in the cooling circuit of the mold, and the implementation of a steam power cycle. At the same time, the best way to cool the hardening steel in the mold is the eutectic alloy of lead with bismuth in terms of the combination of characteristics: temperature mode of operation and features of the operation of the installation; thermophysical properties; in fire safety; application experience; price. Taking into account the difference in the type of refrigerant and the increase in temperature in the cooling circuit, the authors analyzed the efficiency of the mold with various refrigerants (water, lead-bismuth alloy). The article presents the results of computational modeling of a mold using the chtMultiRegionFOAM computational module with the built in solidificationMeltingSource option of the OpenFOAM CFD code. A slot gap was considered as the shape of the cooling channel of the mold.