Research On Effect Of Electromagnetic Field On The Copper Alloy Billets’Solidification Structures And Segregation On Horizontal Continuous Casting

Lead cupronickel and Lead brass alloy have excellent physical and cutting properties, and corrosion resistance. They are easy to processing production, are widely used to produce instruments, medical equipment and marine parts, etc. In recent years, with the development of industry and national economy, the needs of high quality copper and copper alloys and the requirements for the high production efficiency increase quickly. Horizontal electromagnetic continuous casting can eliminate many problems of billets such as poor surface quality, many casting defects> and coarse grains in solidification structure as well as poor uniformity of structure in the circumferential direction. In this paper, we focus on the study of application of electromagnetic field in the horizontal continuous casting, then the parameters of horizontal electromagnetic continuous casting of copper alloy billets are optimized to provides a chance for producing high quality copper and copper alloy billets.First of all, horizontal continuous casting of round copper billet is simulated with water experiment. According to the similar principles, the use of the water flow to simulate the flow of liquid copper, research the effect of crystallizer structure on the copper flow, and to optimize it. The results show that crystallizer with four inclined holes on side wall structure is better to eliminate the proportion of segregation, homogenize composition distribution and useful for improving product quality. In addition, the simulation results about heat-low coupling field of copper solidification process under horizontal continuous casting show that the effect of casting speed is bigger while casting temperature is relatively minor. The effect of electromagnetic field on round copper billet’s flow field and temperature field shows that the electromagnetic field obviously changes the flow pattern of the melt in billet. The flow rate of the melt increases with the increase of electromagnetic frequency and intensity. And the liquid core length and diameter of crystallizer"s longitudinal section is decreased. But, with the increase of the electromagnetic frequency, skin effect becomes more and more obvious.The technology of horizontal electromagnetic continuous casting of copper billets is applied to the industrial production. The problems of designing the structure of the crystallizer and the research on the effect of process parameters on microstructure and the alloy element segregation are solved. The experiments of horizontal electromagnetic continuous casting of (p200mm copper billets were produced after vast of experimental exploration and experimental parameters being optimized. The results show that the macrostructures are greatly refined and the microstructures is well distributed in certain extent. The searesations of Pb is restrained and the distribution of Pb-rich phase is changed with electromagnetic field. For lead cupronickel alloy the optimized parameters are as follws:the current intensity is160A, the current frequency is30Hz, the cooling intensity is6-8m3/min, the casting speed is32.24mm/min> the casting temperature is980oC. For lead brass alloy the optimized parameters are following:the current intensity is100A, the current frequency is30Hz, the first cooling intensity is6-8m3/min, the second cooling intensity is3-4m3/min, the casting speed is94mm/min, the casting temperature is890-930oC.