Abstract
Formation of surface and internal cracks during solidification and cooling of steel in the continuous casting process is highly affected by the stress and strain field. The development of stress and strain fields depends on many factors. The most important are cooling parameters, strand shape, arc of casting machine, casting speed and chemical composition of steel. All these parameters influence on the local stress and strain and may cause the failures formation. In this case prediction of crack formation is a very important problem in the design of the continuous casting technology. The effect of the arc of strand corner on the strain and stress development in the continuously caste ingot and on the possibility of cracks formation has been investigated. The analysis has been performed on the ground of numerical calculations for selected fracture criterions and two different arc of strand corner. Finite element method has been employed to compute the stress and strain field in the whole continuous casting line. The thermal stresses have been calculated for the strand temperature determined from the three dimensional steady solution to the heat transport equation. Heat of solidification has been included in the finite element model. The thermal strains and stresses which result from non uniform temperature field were computed and coupled with the strains and stresses caused by bending and unbending of the strand.