Grant: Engage Plus Grants Program

ArcelorMittal Dofasco is one of North America's advanced steel manufacturers working with the top*automotive, energy, packaging, and construction brands to develop lighter, stronger, and more sustainable*products - from cans to cars. Founded in 1912, ArcelorMittal Dofasco is Hamilton's largest private sector*employer with more than 4,800 employees shipping 5 million short tons of high quality flat carbon steel*annually.*Hot rolling is one of the key steps of steel manufacturing. In this process, hot metal slabs pass between rolls to*decrease their size and to obtain a strip with uniform thickness. During this process, rolls have to be cooled*continuously. High roll temperatures result in early wear/tear and breakdown of rolls due to thermal stresses*and the degradation of product surface quality. Nowadays, mills are trying to increase throughput. However,*this results in higher roll temperatures with the conventional cooling system. To increase cooling efficiency,*CRM (Centre Recherche Métallurgique-Gent, Belgium) and ArcelorMittal Gent developed an innovative*technology called High Turbulence Roll Cooling (HTRC). This system significantly improved cooling.*However, all the design and operational parameters of this system are not yet optimized.*Via an Engage project, a 3D flow model of HRTC was developed, and the effects of different design and*operational parameters (nozzle configuration, water flow rate, spacer thickness, roll diameter, etc.) on*turbulence were investigated. In this Engage Plus project, the heat transfer will be added to the above model.*After validation with mill data, a comprehensive study will be carried out to determine the impact of various*parameters on the HRTC performance in order to identify the best conditions which will lead to optimized*cooling and better product quality at lower cost.