9th ECCC European Continuous Casting Conference – ECCC 2017

Secondary cooling is an important process in continuous casting in the steelmaking division from the viewpoints of stable industrial operation and the quality of cast slabs. Historically, hydraulic spray nozzles were originally used in the continuous casting process, but mist spray nozzles were developed subsequently to prevent clogging of the nozzle tip and surface cracks of cast slabs. Moreover, higher slab cooling capacities have been needed to cope with high speed casting operation over the wide range of water spray rates in the secondary cooling process. However, there are few reports on the cooling capacity of the secondary cooling process, especially the spray thickness and the collision pressure in the casting direction. In this study, laboratory experiments on the cooling capacities of hydraulic and mist spray nozzles were carried under various conditions by developing several kinds of hydraulic and mist spray nozzles. From the experimental results, in order to achieve a high cooling capacity in a spray nozzle, it is important to select the proper spray thickness and collision pressure when designing the nozzle.