Special Issue: Modeling and Simulation of Metallurgical Processes in Steelmaking

This special issue of steel research international was planned to publish selected articles for the 9th International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Metallurgical Processes in Steelmaking (STEELSIM 2021), which was held in Leoben, Austria, on October 5–7, 2021. The conference was made online because the world was still suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. As the digital computer was introduced to the field of metallurgy in the 1960s, an international conference, with the participation of 290 metallurgists and mathematicians, was held to discuss the topic of numerical modeling of metallurgical processes [J. M. van Langen, et al., Proceedings of the conference on Mathematical models in metallurgical process development, Feb. 12–13. 1969, London, ISBN 0900497114]. Although the capacity of computer hardware was minimal (CPU ≈ 100 kHz, memory ≈ 100 kb), the presented papers covered the model for rapid-heating furnaces; solidification mechanisms of steel; mathematical study of the continuous casting; temperature distribution during hot rolling; model of the blast-furnace process, etc. To the best knowledge of the guest editor, this was the first conference of this kind with as-published proceedings. Fifty years have passed, the capacity of computers has increased by a factor of 104–5, the tremendous progress has been made in this field. In order to facilitate the scientific exchanges between the model developers (academic researchers and the front model-users in metallurgical industries), a specific conference series on the Modeling and Simulation of Metallurgical Processes in Steelmaking (STEELSIM) was initiated in 2005, held regularly every two years. It started in Brno (Czech Republic) in 2005, continued in Graz (Austria) in 2007, Leoben (Austria) in 2009, Düsseldorf (Germany) in 2011, Ostrava (Czech Republic) in 2013, Bardolino (Italy) in 2015, Qingdao (China) in 2017, Toronto (Canada) in 2019, Leoben (Austria) in 2021. This conference covered a broad spectrum of topics related to the modeling and simulation of ironmaking and steelmaking. There were 23 sessions, dealing with 11 main topics: raw materials and ironmaking; blast furnace; slag, refractory and their interactions with steel; ladle metallurgy and steel refining; flow control and solidification; continuous casting and quality control; metal forming, rolling and thermo-mechanics; microstructure and mechanical properties of steels; advanced iron/steel processing, environmental impact; integration of AI, modeling, data mining; the processing of special steels (ESR, VAR, VIM, etc.). Figure 1 shows the distributions of contributed presentations in each of the above topics. Following the traditions of this conference series, the largest area is still in “continuous casting and quality control” with 28% of contributions. For the first time, the topic “integration of AI, modeling, data mining” was also included in this conference, and it has attracted great attention with 12% of contributions. This special issue includes 16 articles. They were carefully selected from the STEELSIM 2021 by considering the following criteria: 1) to cover all the above 11 main topics as dealt by the conference; 2) to represent the state-of-the-art of relevant areas; 3) to balance the academic research and industry applications. With the continuously improved understanding of different metallurgical phenomena and the increased computer capacity (hardware/software), the numerical models will become more and more complex, precise, and closer to reality. The selected articles in this special issue can serve as milestones of the relevant research/development activities achieved in the early 2020s. Prof. Dr. Menghuai Wu did his Master degree at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China, a Ph.D. degree in 2000 at the Foundry Institute, RWTH Aachen in Germany, and Habilitation (professorial certificate) in 2008 at Montanuniversitaet Leoben in Austria. His main research interests are the modeling and simulation of solidification and related phenomena. The volume average-based multiphase solidification models, as developed by him and co-workers, have been applied to different industry processes: steel ingot, continuous and semi-continuous castings of steel, ESR and VAR, freeze lining in pyro-metallurgical furnaces, unidirectional solidification of turbine blades for superalloy, etc.

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