The growth rate of the shell thickness in the funnel mold for ultrahigh-speed continuous casting of steel has a significant effect on the shell surface quality. By using the node temperature inheritance algorithm, a three-dimensional transient thermal conductivity model of the liquid steel solidification inside the mold was established, and the effects of casting temperature and speed on the heat transfer behavior of the thin slab were investigated. The results show that with an increase in the casting speed from 4.0 to 6.0 m·min ⁻¹ , the maximum thickness of the shell at mold exit was reduced from 26 to 12.8 mm, and the maximum temperature of the slab surface at mold exit increased from 1,210 to 1,305°C. However, the increase of casting temperature from 1,550 to 1,560°C had little effect on the surface temperature and thickness of the slab shell.

Asynchronous spiking neural P systems with rules on synapses (ARSSN P systems) are a class of computation models, where spiking rules are placed on synapses. In this work, we investigate the computation power of ARSSN P systems working in the rule synchronization mode, where a family of rule sets are specified, and all the rules in a such set should be synchronously used or not. We prove that ARSSN P systems working in the rule synchronization mode are universal as number generating, number accepting, and function computing devices, respectively. Additionally, two universal ARSSN P systems working in the rule synchronization mode are constructed. The results indicate that rule synchronization is a powerful ingredient for resource-saving, as the constructed universal ARSSN P systems working in rule synchronization mode use less neurons than the counterpart universal systems without rule synchronization.