Cooling control system for continuous casting of metal

Abstract: Maintaining the shell surface temperature profile under transient conditions by spray water cooling in continuous casting of steel is often desired to reduce occurrence of surface cracks. For this purpose, a real-time spray-cooling control system is provided that includes one or more of: a virtual sensor for accurate estimation/prediction of shell surface temperature, control algorithm and data checking subroutines for robust temperature control, server and client programs for communicating between these software components and the caster, and a real-time monitor to display the predicted shell surface temperature profiles, water flow rates, and operating data, among other things. (end of abstract)

Cooling control system for continuous casting of metal description/claims

Brief Patent Description

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Patent Application Claims

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/928,043, filed May 7, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

The present invention was made with Government assistance under National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant DMI 05-00453.

BACKGROUND

The present application relates to metal casting, and more particularly, but not exclusively, relates to the continuous casting of metal slabs and cooling control thereof.

Typical continuous casting arrangements include a water-cooled mold that provides initial/primary cooling of the molten metal being cast. Robust and accurate control of secondary cooling, such as water spray cooling, with such arrangements is often desired for successful operation and the production of high quality products. Secondary cooling is often a focus of thin slab casters because high casting speed and a tight machine radius typically require carefully-prescribed temperature profiles to avoid various problems, such as cracks and “whale formation”. Indeed, cracking can be reduced by successful control of the secondary cooling to maintain these optimal temperature profiles through changes in casting process conditions. Whale formation can be avoided by ensuring that the metallurgical length (maximum length of the liquid core of the continuous-cast metal) is always less than the length of that portion of the caster where support rolls contain the strand to prevent excessive bulging.

Secondary cooling presents several challenges to control. Conventional feedback control systems based on hardware sensors are typically unsuccessful because emissivity variations from intermittent surface scale and the harsh environment of the steam-filled spray chamber makes optical pyrometers unreliable. Secondary cooling of thin-slab casting is particularly difficult to control because of the thinner shell, the higher casting speed, and the increased relevance of solidification in the mold, which is not easy to predict accurately. Thus, there is a need for further contributions in this area of technology.

SUMMARY

One embodiment of the present invention includes a unique casting technique. Other embodiments include unique methods, systems, devices, and apparatus involving continuous casting control. Further embodiments, forms, features, aspects, benefits, and advantages of the present application shall become apparent from the description and figures provided herewith.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a partial diagrammatic view of a continuous caster.

FIG. 2 is a further diagrammatic view of a mold and strand for the caster of FIG. 1 with various temperature sensor inputs to a control system depicted.

FIG. 3 is a control system diagram for the caster of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 is a partial diagrammatic view depicting the architecture of one implementation of the control system of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating various aspects of heat transfer in the mold region.

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