A Complete Thermal Analysis of a Funnel-Type Mold Used in High-Speed Thin Slab Continuous Casting Through Three-Dimensional Inverse Heat Conduction Problem

Accurate quantification of heat fluxHeat flux during high-speed thin slab continuous castingContinuous casting is essential for the design and development of the products as well as operation and quality control of the casting processProcess. A novel method for the estimation of the funnel-type mold based on the measured responding temperaturesTemperature from two surfaces of thermocouples that embedded inside the funnel moldFunnel mold during continuous castingContinuous casting has been developed. The method includes a Three-DimensionalThree-dimensional Inverse transient Heat Conduction Problem (3D-IHCP) model that is solved by the conjugate gradient method. The results indicated that the heat fluxesHeat flux and temperaturesTemperature across funnel moldFunnel mold hot surface calculated by 3D-IHCP show the same variation tendency as those calculated by 2D-IHCP. Nevertheless, the heat fluxesHeat flux calculated by 3D-IHCP are larger than those calculated by 2D-IHCP for the locations below the meniscus at the funnel and transition region, but are closed to those calculated by 2D-IHCP for the other positions due to the inclined wall of the funnel-type mold and the convex mold curvature.