Modeling of solidification in twin-roll strip casting

Twin-roll continuous casting combines solidification and hot rolling into a single operation to produce thin strips that are directly coilable. It offers advantages of low capital investment and low operational cost, and the strips produced have a refined solidification microstructure, which has attracted interest of global metal producers. This is evidenced by numerous pilot-scale casters constructed. The successful development of near-net-shape casting depends critically on an understanding of the fundamental knowledge of heat and fluid flow. Despite sophisticated instrumentation technology, information critical to the understanding of the casting region cannot be measured directly, therefore it is necessary to develop efficient numerical tools to control the process. This paper presents a numerical model for the two-dimensional solidification problem in the twin-roll continuous casting system by using a finite difference technique. The thermal analysis results give valuable insight into the thermal characteristics of solidification and processing for the strip casting. Results of subsequent simulations are compared with data from the literature.