Casting Research at Swerea MEFOS: Past Activities, Present Challenges and Future Perspectives

In the lecture, I will attempt to give a short overview of the activities on casting at Swerea MEFOS where I have worked in the past 8 years. This includes a variety of projects with Swedish but also International steelmakers which are focused on problem diagnosis, process optimization and elimination of defects in continuously cast products. The approach is strongly based on numerical modelling (CFD & FEM), but is always supported by experimental work at MEFOS’ pilot facilities and direct plant trials with the steelmakers whenever possible. Ultimately, the lecture will explain how casting is affected by a variety of physical phenomena (Flow dynamics, Heat Transfer and Solidification) but also by the peculiarities of each production environment. This makes Casting Research an interesting mix of fundamental physics and practical solutions which portrays very well the challenges nowadays faced by the engineers in the steel industry.