Recent developments of water and mist spray cooling in continuous casting of steels

Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Laboratory, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic
e-mail: raudensky@fme.vutbr.cz

Received: 1 November 2015
Accepted: 22 April 2016

Abstract

In continuous casting (CC) of steel, the water spray cooling system installed in the secondary cooling (SC) zone plays a critical role in controlling its productivity and product quality. In this paper, recent developments in spray cooling applied to the SC are reviewed and evaluated. After introducing the importance of CC in the metal industry and the significance of spray cooling in CC, the development of nozzles and cooling facilities as well as the fundamentals of spray cooling used in the SC zone are presented and discussed. The quantification of heat transfer performance of spray cooling in CC is then studied and the leading correlations developed for the heat transfer coefficient HTC related to major spray cooling parameters are selected and compared. The development of techniques for measuring the essential spray cooling parameters and HTC are also described and assessed. Finally, recommendations on future efforts for developing a better spray cooling system or correlation are provided.