Research On Numerical Simulation Of Solidification Process Of Copper Clad Steel Horizontal Continuous Casting

Copper clad steel is a new type of composite metal material with good thermal and electrical properties,and has advantages such as stable strength and good corrosion resistance in applications.It is widely used in grounding devices such as the petrochemical industry,railway transportation,communication lines,and power stations.Horizontal continuous casting is one of the main methods for producing copper clad steel,which can produce high-quality copper clad steel with uniform microstructure and composition,less impurities,and large copper layer thickness.The existing research on metal continuous casting usually uses a combination of experimental and empirical methods to study the solidification and heat transfer process of the billet,which has shortcomings such as long experimental cycles and insufficient accuracy,making it difficult to accurately analyze the parameter changes in the solidification process.The numerical simulation method is not limited by conditions and can be simulated under different process conditions,which can effectively help improve experimental accuracy,shorten experimental cycle,and reduce costs.In this article,the solidification process of horizontal continuous casting of copper clad steel was taken as the research object.The structural model of the crystallizer was designed,and a three-dimensional unsteady finite element model of the crystallizer was established.The heat transfer,phase transformation,and microstructure during the solidification process of horizontal continuous casting of copper clad steel were numerically simulated using the casting simulation software Pro CAST.The effects of process parameters on the temperature field,solidification field,microstructure field,and the quality of copper clad steel were quantitatively analyzed.Mastered the solidification behavior of copper clad steel and further optimized the process parameters.Using numerical simulation results as a reference,with the aim of improving the quality of copper clad steel,providing reliable theoretical basis and guidance for enterprises to produce copper clad steel with high quality and efficiency.Through simulation,the numerical simulation results and variation patterns of solidification heat transfer of copper clad steel under different process parameters(primary cold water flow rate,continuous casting temperature,and casting speed)were preliminarily obtained.Data analysis was conducted on the simulation results of temperature field,and the simulation results of microstructure grain growth were compared and analyzed with the copper clad steel casting billet.Furthermore,the condition parameters of the model were modified to improve the accuracy of numerical simulation.The preliminary calculation results of the numerical simulation are: under the cooling effect of the water-cooled crystallizer,the high-temperature copper liquid solidifies into a metal copper uniformly coated on the surface of the steel core.During this process,the average depth of the liquid hole is about 60 mm,and the microstructure grain is fine and dense,with uniform size and growth direction,exhibiting equiaxed crystal characteristics.The copper layer thickness of the copper clad steel billet can reach 3.0mm.The effects of different process parameters such as cold water flow rate,continuous casting temperature,and casting speed on the solidification process of copper clad steel horizontal continuous casting and the quality of copper clad steel billets were compared.The calculation results show that the influence of casting speed is most significant.For every 10mm/min increase in casting speed,the depth of the liquid cavity increases by about 5mm,and the average thickness of the copper layer decreases by 0.6mm;The influence of continuous casting temperature is significant.For every 25 ℃ increase in continuous casting temperature,the depth of the liquid cavity increases by about 3mm,and the average thickness of the copper layer decreases by 0.4mm;The influence of the first cold water flow rate is relatively small.When the cooling intensity of copper liquid solidification is not reached,for every increase of 50L/h in the first cold water flow rate,the average thickness of the copper layer increases by 0.2mm,and the change in liquid cavity depth is not significant.The optimal process parameters for horizontal continuous casting of copper clad steel were obtained using orthogonal experiments and analysis of variance,including a cold water flow rate of 1200L/min,continuous casting temperature of 1150 ℃,and casting speed of 360mm/min.