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ORGANIZER;CN=ESTAD 2023:mailto:info@metec-estad.com
LOCATION:Room 19a
SUMMARY:Thermal mold monitoring using fiber optics: Getting better insights with data analytics
DESCRIPTION:Mold thermal monitoring in continuous casting is essential for breakout prevention and to monitor process stability. Whilst useful, the number of thermocouples and coverage has been limited. Owing to these limitations, a mold containing Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) was developed to increase measurement resolution.
This high-resolution grid provides the basis for various data analytics approaches to get a clear heat transfer picture and to characterize casting mold phenomena that until now have remained only accessible through modelling. We will present 3 main focus areas to gain better insights into the heat transfer picture. Firstly, an accurate temperature-based mold level measurement along the entire mold width has allowed to link mold flow with meniscus shape. Describing the meniscus shape has proven central to relate process parameters such as argon, throughput, and electromagnetic flow control to surface quality. Secondly, the information on heat transfer along the slag pool and meniscus area has allowed to observe localized performance of the melting powder behavior. This has served as accelerator to evaluate mold powder performance. Third, having the full heat transfer picture has allowed to observe in a very early-stage other process problems such as uneven mold powder infiltration and possible rim formation. 
Among the advantages of using FBGs as thermal monitoring tool is the ability to collect the process status in real-time. This enables the analysis of the process with statistical and other data analytics methods in a shorter amount of time. For this we have developed an interactive app where the results of the analysis are summarized and visualized. This allows faster and better-informed decision making for process optimization and incident prevention. 
The information, knowledge and algorithm development coming from FBG mold monitoring has allowed to capitalize the use of FBG as thermal probes in form of process reliability and product quality improvement.
 
CLASS:PUBLIC
DTSTART:20230614T115000
DTEND:20230614T121000
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