Finite Element Analysis of the Heat Transfer in a Copper Mould during Continuous Casting of Steel Slabs

To calibrate the CON1D model for accurate simulation of mold temperature and heat flux in a thin-slab casting mold, 3-dimensional heat transfer computations were performed using ANSYS and used to find the offset distance for CON1D. The CON1D model was found to produce accurate simulations everywhere across the wideface, so long as the mold thickness is set to 33.4mm and the thermocouple positions are offset by 1.8mm (moving thermocouples computationally from 14mm to 12.2mm from the hot face). Thermocouple temperatures drop greatly if there is any contact problem attaching them (~10 oC drop for just a contact resistance equivalent to 0.01mm air gap