The Importance of Computational Models for Further Improvements of the Continuous Casting Process

Continuous casting technology has advanced due to innovations resulting from knowledge gained from several different tools. These include expensive plant trials, laboaroray experiments, water models, and mathematical models. As the process becomes increasingly optimized and mature, simple trial and error is less likely to lead to success. At the same time, these trials become more costly, as more statistics must be gathered to quantify success. It is therefore important to have a correct understanding of the fundamental phenomena that occur in the process. Ideas which grow from deep understanding are more likely to lead to the successful trials and technology advances of the future.