RAPID SOLIDIFICATION OF AA2024 ALUMINUM ALLOY STRIPS, PROCESSED VIA HORIZONTAL SINGLE BELT CASTING

Horizontal Single Belt Casting (HSBC) enjoys several advantages over traditional Continuous Casting (CC) and Direct Chill (DC) casting methods in the production of thin metallic strips. These include a reduction in capital and operating costs, thanks to a significant reduction in the processing steps conventionally needed to produce thin sheet materials. This dramatic lowering of production costs, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, makes HSBC an interesting process. Given its uniformly high solidification rates across these freezing strips, one can achieve uniform properties and microstructures throughout the liquid metal being cast. In the present work, a non-isothermal analysis of heat flows in the critical region where liquid aluminum first pours onto the water-cooled belt, is made. This allows one to scope out the range of material properties, flowrates, and belt speeds that can be used for a successful cast. The example chosen for analysis, was AA2024 alloy. This is an aircraft alloy, possessing a long freezing range, which is difficult to cast conventionally. Using the CFD ANSYS-Fluent 19.1, and various combinations of the important process parameters, the present research provides an accurate prediction of the window available for stable operation, including “back meniscus” stability.