Pores, inclusions and electromagnetic stirring
Topics from the continuous casting of steel
Time: Wed 2020-04-15 10.00
Location: Vid fysisk närvaro eller Du som saknar dator/ datorvana kan konatakta service@itm.kth.se (English)
Subject area: Materials Science and Engineering
Doctoral student: Arash Safavi Nick , Metallernas gjutning
Opponent: Prof. Jesper H. Hattel,
Supervisor: Professor Pär Jönsson, Materialens processteknologi; Professor Michael Vynnycky, FaxénLaboratoriet, Mekanik, Metallernas gjutning
Abstract
This thesis deals with two topics of relevance to the continuous casting of steel,in view of their importance as regards the quality of the final solidified structure.The first concerns the precipitation of gas pores and inclusions in the interden-dritic region of the solidifying metal. Motivated by experimental results thatindicate the formation of pore-inclusion clusters in the final cast structure, a the-oretical model is developed to describe how thus might occur; the model makesuse of the basic principles of fluid mechanics and heat transfer, with asymptoticmethods then being used in order to obtain solutions. In particular, it is foundthat soluto-thermocapillary drift in a direction perpendicular to the direction ofcasting, as a consequence of the dependence of surface tension at the pore-metalinterface on temperature and sulphur concentration, could explain cluster forma-tion. The second is a theoretical study concerning longitudinal electromagneticstirring (EMS), which is often used in the continuous casting of blooms in order toimprove product quality. Via an analysis of the three-dimensional (3D) Maxwellequations for the components of the magnetic flux density, a flaw is found inthe way that the components of the stirring Lorentz force have previously beencalculated; this is corrected and the new results are confirmed by comparison ofsolutions obtained from asymptotic analysis and time-dependent 3D computa-tions using finite-element methods. The analysis identifies the importance of theproduct of the bloom width and the wave vector of the applied field as a keydimensionless parameter.