Verified reduction of a model for a continuous casting process

The casting of metals is known to involve the complex interaction of turbulent momentum and heat transfer in the presence of solidification, and it is believed that computational fluid dynamical (CFD) techniques are required to model it correctly. Here, using asymptotic methods, we demonstrate that the key quantities obtained in an earlier CFD model for a particular continuous casting process – ostensibly for a pure metal, but equally for an alloy of eutectic composition – can be recovered using a much simpler model that takes into account just the heat transfer, requiring the numerical solution of a two-phase Stefan problem. Combining this with a more recent asymptotic thermomechanical model for the same continuous casting process, we postulate that it should be possible, with the additional help of algebraic manipulation, to reduce a model that takes into account turbulent momentum and heat transfer in the melt and the thermomechanics in the solid shell to one formulated in terms of only heat transfer, without adversely affecting model predictions.