Numerical Simulation of Dendrites Growth in Continuous Casting by Using Open Source Software

Cracking in continuous casting has always been one of the main problems of steel mills. Many cracks that occur during solidification are difficult to observe from outside the industrial mold. In order to better understand the formation of this defect, compared with the large-scale simulation used in the entire industrial process, microsimulation is also essential. A comprehensive study of using phase field method to simulate microstructure evolution has been conducted. A variety of two-dimensional models based on phase-filed method has been developed in order to simulate dendrites growth in continuous casting process. The basic concepts of phase-field method are presented. Among those models, Kobayashi model was first introduced to describe the morphology of pure material solidification, in this article, which are pure water and pure iron. In order to get closer to the actual situation of continuous casting, a multi-component model was introduced to solve the problem. To go a step further, by introducing a series of temperature parameters and modifications to a series of terms, the binary alloy directional solidification model was used to simulate the process of dendrite growth in continuous casting. Furthermore, the detailed derivation of the binary alloy solidification model and how to apply the model in open source software will also be introduced in this article. The effects of physical parameters such as anisotropic strength, temperature gradient and cooling rate on the growth and evolution of the dendrite interface were quantitatively analyzed. Finally, potential improvement of this model, optimization to primary cooling section in continuous casting process and various applications of the simulation were discussed.