Flow flattening in continuous casting mold by electromagnetic effects

The magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) technique is widely used in various industrial fields such as manufacturing of semi-conducting wafers, the blanket flows of fusion reactors, and the continuous casting process. For the improvement of internal and external casting defects, various flow braking systems using the MHD technology have been devised and applied to actual continuous casting plants. However, in order to apply such systems more successfully, it is crucial to properly understand the electromagnetic phenomena inside the continuous casting mold (CCM) and the resulting fluid dynamic behaviors. In this study, the hydrodynamic characteristics in the CCM are numerically investigated when a uniform magnetic field flux is applied to the CCM externally. Instead of the flow-braking concept, which has been widely recognized, the flow-flattening phenomenon affected by an electromagnetic action such as the Hartmann layer is discussed in this paper. Although the thermal behavior in the CCM is not handled in this study, the flow-flattening concept is a more effective countermeasure to properly cope with the solidification problem. For the electromagnetic behaviors, the Poisson equation for the electrical potential is solved. The velocity profiles, current density, Lorentz force, etc. are presented for cases with and without applying the magnetic field flux.