Simulation of Solidification Process of Steel Ingot under the Forced-Convection Condition

In real situations, convection often plays a dominant role in solidification process. In this paper, the solidification process of steel ingot was studied using ProCAST® software. The temperature field, velocity field and microstructure of steel ingot were simulated under the forced-convection condition (addition of rotation). The results showed that the exerted rotation on the ingot could produce the uniform temperature distribution and refine the grains during the solidification process. When the rotation angular velocity is 5°/s, cooling curve of the feature points appeared a slight fluctuations with a range of 0.3°C. The growth of columnar grain was restrained, and the grain was refined. When the speed increased to 20°/s, cooling curve of t he feature points appeared the drastic fluctuations with a range of 1–2°C. The proportion of columnar grain decreased while the proportion of equiaxed grain increased greatly and the grain was refined obviously.