Numerical Simulations of the Continuous Casting of Steel with Electromagnetic Braking and Stirring

In the continuous casting of steel the application of electromagnetic fields for flow modification is steadily increasing. Rotating fields are used to excite a rotary motion in the strand whereas stationary fields are used to break the submerged jets. Numerical simulations are nearly irreplaceable means to get detailed information about the flow field and the magnetic fields in order to optimize the processes. The interaction between the fields is considered by full coupling methods. While the liquid steel flow is simulated with the commercial code FLUENT, two different approaches for the magnetic field simulation are presented. One approach uses the FLUENT MHD add-on module and the other the FEM code ANSYS Emag. These two methods are compared with each other and simpler approaches found in literature for cases of electromagnetic braking and stirring.