Case Study: SMS Concast achieves optimized continuous casting, improved steel quality and major energy & CO2 savings with COMSOL Multiphysics

Optimizing Both Machine and Process with Simulation

SMS Concast, Switzerland — a 60-year leader in continuous casting — needed to optimize highly coupled, multi-physics steelmaking processes to produce larger, higher-quality products with lower energy use. Challenges included designing electromagnetic stirrers, predicting primary solidification and shrinkage in copper molds for hot-charging, and minimizing segregation and inclusions. To tackle this, SMS Concast used Comsol’s COMSOL Multiphysics to link electromagnetics, fluid flow, mechanics and heat transfer in one simulation platform.

With Comsol, SMS Concast simulated tundish flow, mold solidification, strand deformation and electromagnetic stirring, and validated models against scaled physical tests. The simulations guided a new mold design implemented at Tung Ho Steel that enabled direct hot-charging and eliminated the need for a reheating furnace, reducing annual CO2 emissions by about 40,000 tons (roughly equivalent to the exhaust of 20,000 cars). Comsol-based modeling also supported record-size caster developments and measurable improvements in yield, quality and energy efficiency.

SMS Concast

Nicholas Grundy

Head of Metallurgy & Process Continuous Casting