Analysis of a model for longitudinal electromagnetic stirring in the continuous casting of steel

Abstract

A recent three-dimensional (3D) model that revisited earlier theoretical work for longitudinal electromagnetic stirring in the continuous casting of steel blooms is analyzed further to explore how the bloom width interacts with the pole pitch of the stirrer to affect the magnetic flux density. Whereas the first work indicated the presence of a boundary layer in the steel near the interface with the stirrer, with all three components of the magnetic flux density vector being coupled to each other, in the analysis presented here we find that the component along the direction of the travelling wave decouples from those in the other two directions and can even be determined analytically in the form of a series solution. Moreover, it is found that the remaining two components can be found via a two-dimensional computation, but that it is not possible in general to determine these components without taking into account the surrounding air. The validity of the asymptotically reduced model solution is confirmed by comparing it with the results of 3D numerical computations. Moreover, the asymptotic approach provides a way to compute the time-averaged Lorentz force components that requires two orders of magnitude less computational time than the fully 3D approach.