Model for the thermal state of the mandrel in an electroslag furnace

Abstract

The design of the mold in an electroslag furnace for melting hollow billets for metal-cutting knives, which has a water-cooling mandrel, is considered. A scheme for cooling of the copper mandrel is proposed. A mathematical model is developed, and an algorithm is proposed to calculate the thermal state of the mandrel at the chosen geometric parameters, a given number of water-cooling channels, and certain cooling water parameters. It is found for an internal copper mold 200 mm in diameter that a stationary thermal regime is reached in at most 5 min. An increase in the number of channels at the same total cross-sectional area is shown to cause a decrease in the temperature gradients and the maximum temperature in the internal mold. The ANSYS software package is used to simulate the thermal state of the copper mandrel of the proposed design at given water cooling parameters. The calculations support the adequacy of the proposed mathematical model.