Analysis of heat transfer near the meniscus in mo]d for continuous casting of steel has been carried out by taking into account conductive and radiative thermal resistances of infiltrated mo!d flux film and thermal resistance at the copper mold/solidifying mold flux film interface. Mold fluxes in commercial use for casting [ow and mediumcarbon steel are selected for this study. Thermal conductivities, absorption coefficients and interfacial thermal resistances of these fluxes have been

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... d in our previous work by laser flash method, high temperature cell FTIR test and contacting thermal resistance test, respectively. Calcu]ation with these data shows that the heat transfer is strongly influenced by the interfacial thermal resistance. Slow cooling required for casting surface crack sensitive mediumcarbon peritectic steel slabs can be achieved by making the interfacial thermal resistance high, which is attainable by use of basic mold fluxes with high rate of crystallization. A flux film thicker than 0.25 mm for the low carbon steel or 0.4mm for the medium carbon steel is also found to be a requisite to prevent the occurrence of longitudinal surface cracks. Reasonably high interfacial thermal resistance and a proper flux film thickness are essentiai to reduce the surface defects and to increase the speed of continuous casting of these steel slabs.