Experimental approach to develop Multi-Mode® EMB, an advanced electromagnetic brake for thin slab casters

Overview & Synopsis

This paper refers to the development of a new electromagnetic brake (Multi-Mode® EMB) specifically dedicated to thin slab casters (TSC). Unlike our first publication last year [1] it describes in more detail the approach to develop a new EMB concept not only by simulations but by experimental work. Considering that no commercial software was available with reliable full coupling between electromagnetic and CFD codes and starting from our know-how in TSC process fluid-dynamics, we decided to design and realize an installation that simulates with cold melting metal at scale 1 the industrial operation of a thin slab caster. The result was not only the validation of the concept of the new EMB, but the development of the operating know how. The extensive measurement of liquid metal flow velocity and fluctuations within a large range of existing and future operating conditions of slab width and casting speed permits to develop in advance the knowledge, how to use the EMB control parameters for different casting conditions. That in turn permits to develop in advance the automation software for industrial operation. Without the full scale caster simulator, such task would require test casts of some hundred thousand tons that no steel making company would accept to do on its thin slab caster.