A new software tool for the process engineer for the simulation of the solidification process of steel for continuous slab casting machines

The knowledge about the solidification of liquid steel to solid steel is important for the technology of continuous casting. The mathematical simulation is a valuable tool for these tasks. At voestalpine the solidification model has been developed. This model allows the prediction of the solidification process, like strand shell formation, shell temperature, microsegregation and shrinkage behavior. This solidification model needs a software tool, main requirements of which were ease of use, fast response time and the presentation of the computational results in various level of depth from graphical output for judging the results at a glance to various detailed reports in formats suitable for further post-processing, if required. At voestalpine a software tool has been developed in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences, Upper Austria, campus Wels. In this work the design of the software tool and the basic function blocks are presented. The main focus of the presentation is the explanation of the software tool, the results obtained and the use of the tool at voestalpine.