Effect of Induction Heat on Initial Solidification During Electromagnetic Continuous Casting of Steel

Aiming at the process of electromagnetic continuous casting (EMCC), a three dimensional finite element model on electromagnetic field and temperature field was developed through the commercial software ANSYS to investigate the effects of induction heat of high frequency electromagnetic field on the early solidification process of molten steel in soft contact mold under various conditions of exciting current parameters. The results show that the induction heat has significant effects on the early solidification process, which appear as increasing the billet surface temperature, thinning the initial solidified shell and lowering the starting point of the initial solidification. The increases of exciting current frequency and density make the effects of induction heat on solidification process increased remarkably. Especially, with the increase of exciting current frequency, the early solidification process and shell growth become non-uniform in billet circumferential direction. Morever, if the exciting current density exceeds a certain value, there occurs a high temperature region in the top of molten steel column, and then the initial solidification rate is decreased greatly.