Problem of the moving boundary in continuous casting solved by the analytic-numerical method

Mathematical modeling of thermal processes combined with the reversible phase transitions of type: solid phase – liquid phase leads to formulation of the parabolic or elliptic moving boundary problem. Solution of such defined problem requires, most often, to use some sophisticated numerical techniques and far advanced mathematical tools. The paper presents an analytic-numerical method, especially attractive from the engineer’s point of view, applied for finding the approximate solutions of the selected class of problems which can be reduced to the one-phase solidification problem of a plate with the unknown a priori, varying in time boundary of the region in which the solution is sought. Proposed method is based on the known formalism of initial expansion of a sought function, describing the field of temperature, into the power series, some coefficients of which are determined with the aid of boundary conditions, and on the approximation of a function defining the freezing front location with the broken line, parameters of which are determined numerically. The method represents a combination of the analytical and numerical techniques and seems to be an effective and relatively easy in using tool for solving problems of considered kind.