Effect of Structure Parameters on Power and Magnetic Field in Electromagnetic Soft-Contact Continuous Casting System Original Research Article

To design a power source system and mold for electromagnetic soft-contact continuous casting process and to theoretically estimate the heat losses from the charges and the system power, the effect of structure parameters on system power and magnetic flux density distribution was calculated using finite element method. The results show that as for electromagnetic soft-contact continuous casting system with partial-segment type mold, the power consumption is much more than that with a full-segment type mold; about 62% of electric power is dissipated in the mold, and the effective acting range of magnetic field is relatively narrow. Optimizing mold structure is a crucial measure of remarkably reducing mold power consumption and saving electric energy. Increasing slit number, width, and length can remarkably increase the magnetic flux density in the mold and can reduce the electric energy consumption. Among structure parameters, slit number and slit width are relatively more effective to reduce energy consumption. For a round billet electromagnetic continuous casting system with diameter of 178 mm, the reasonable slit number, width, and length are about 24–32, 0.5–1.0 mm, and 160 mm, respectively.