Prediction of Local Heat Flux and Temperature Distribution in a Mould Copper Plate for Flexible Thin Slab Casting Based on In‐plant Temperature Measurements

A three‐dimensional (3D) numerical model has been employed to predict the local temperature and heat flux distribution on the funnel‐shaped Flexible Thin Slab Casting (FTSC) H2 mould plate®. The modelling was combined with in‐plant temperature measurements from thermocouples installed in the mould. For the measurements the thermocouples are arranged to be adapted to the funnel‐curved shape of the mould such that the spatial locations of measured temperature data sets from the thermocouples can be regarded to form a plane. The method divides the geometry of the mould plate into two computational domains along the measured temperature plane in order to utilize the data as the boundary condition by interpolation. The measured data are compared with those obtained by the average heat flux and one‐dimensional (1D) heat conductivity model in the thermal analysis of the mould plate. It is found that the assumption of average heat flux only along the longitudinal direction, used in conventional billet or slab moulds, is not satisfactory to describe the heat transfer of the complex funnel‐shaped mould in the longitudinal and transverse direction. The heat flux values and hot face temperature in funnel‐shaped mould plates obtained by the 3D model are lower in comparison to the 1D model. The structure of cooling water channels has a significant influence on the uniformity of the heat flux. Some fluctuations of heat flux and temperature occur in the junction between the parallel‐curved and funnel‐curved zone along the longitudinal and transverse direction for the present case. It is expected that by utilizing the measured temperature data, the present model can be helpful to understand the thermal behaviour and define the thermal boundary condition of the funnel‐type mould plate.