Numerical analysis of simultaneous cooling process of upper and lower side of running hot steel strip

After hot rolling, a high-temperature steel plate with a temperature higher than 800°C is rapidly cooled by multiple circular water jets. In this cooling process, because the temperature of the steel plate is much higher than the boiling point of the cooling water, film-boiling heat transfer occurs and a very thin steam layer forms between the plate surface and the cooling water. The steam layer acts as a thermal resistance that prevents heat transfer between the cooling water and the steel plate. In addition to the film-boiling heat transfer, complex physical phenomena such as the free-surface flow of residual water that accumulated on the material and the material's high-speed motion also occur in the cooling process. In this study, the simultaneous cooling process of the upper and lower sides of a running hot steel strip is investigated using a three-dimensional numerical model and the cooling performances and characteristics of the upper-side cooling and lower-side cooling are compared.