Brian Thomas

Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Headshot of Dr. Brian Thomas in front of bookshelfProfessor Thomas joined Mines in 2015, as a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department. He received his B.Eng. from McGill University and his PhD from the University of British Columbia, both in Metallurgical Process Engineering. His research is primarily in the field of metals processing and focuses on the computational modeling of the continuous casting of steel and related processes.

By combining the results of his computational model calculations with laboratory experiments, metallographic analysis and measurements on operating commercial casters, he has generated fundamental knowledge about how the continuous casting process works, how defects form, and how quality can be improved.

Prior to joining Mines, he led the Metals Processing Simulation Laboratory at the University of Illinois where he was the C.J. Gauthier Professor and Director of the Continuous Casting Consortium (CCC). The CCC is transitioning to the Mines campus, where it has been renamed the Continuous Casting Center.

Contact

Brown Hall W470A
303-273-3309
bgthomas@mines.edu

Labs and Research Centers

Publications

  • K. Jin, S.P. Vanka, and B.G. Thomas, “Large Eddy Simulations of the Effects of EMBr and SEN Submergence Depth on Turbulent Flow in the Mold Region of a Steel Caster,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 162-178, Feb. 2017
  • M.L.S Zappulla and B.G. Thomas, “Thermal-Mechanical Model of Depression Formation in Steel Continuous Casting,” TMS 2017 146th Annual Meeting & Exhibition Supplemental Proceedings, pp. 501-510, 2017
  • K. Jin, S.P. Vanka, R.K. Agarwal and B.G Thomas, “GPU accelerated simulations of three-dimensional flow of power-law fluids in a driven cube,” International Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics, pp. 1-21, Jan. 2017
  • S. Nakhodchi, D.J. Smith and B.G. Thomas, “Thermo-mechanical behaviour during encapsulation of glass in a steel vessel,”International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, vol. 146, pp. 203-215, Oct. 2016
  • L.C. Hibbeler, M.M.C See, J. Iwasaki, K.E. Swartz, R.J. O’Malley and B.G. Thomas, “A reduced-order model of mould heat transfer in the continuous casting of steel,” Applied Mathematical Modelling, vol. 40, no. 19, pp. 8530-8551, Oct. 2016
  • S.M. Cho, B.G Thomas and S.H. Kim, “Transient Two-Phase Flow in Slide-Gate Nozzle and Mold of Continuous Steel Slab Casting with and without Double-Ruler Electro-Magnetic Braking,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 3080-3098, Oct. 2016
  • K. Jin, P. Kumar, S.P. Vanka and B.G. Thomas, “Rise of an argon bubble in liquid steel in the presence of a transverse magnetic field,” Physics of Fluids, vol. 28, no. 9, pp. 093301, Sep. 2016
  • B. Petrus, Z. Chen, J. Bentsman and B.G. Thomas, “Online recalibration of the state estimators for a system with moving boundaries using sparse discrete-in-time temperature measurements,” American Control Conference (ACC), 2016, pp. 2554-2559, July 2016
  • H.J. Lee, B.G. Thomas and S.H. Kim, “Thermal Stress Cracking of Slide-Gate Plates in Steel Continuous Casting,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 1453-1464, Apr. 2016
  • L. Zhang, B.G. Thomas, M. Zhu, A. Ludwig, A.S. Sabau, K. Pericleous and H. Combeau, 2016, CFD Modeling and Simulation in Materials Processing, John Wiley & Sons
  • K. Jin, B.G. Thomas and X. Ruan, “Modeling and measurements of multiphase flow and bubble entrapment in steel continuous casting,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 548-565, Feb. 2016
  • Y.A. Meng and B.G. Thomas, “Heat-transfer and solidification model of continuous slab casting: CON1D,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 685-705, Oct. 2003
  • L. Zhang and B.G. Thomas, “State of the art in evaluation and control of steel cleanliness,” ISIJ International, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 271-291, March 2003
  • B.G. Thomas and L. Zhang, “Mathematical modeling of fluid flow in continuous casting,” ISIJ International, vol. 41, no. 10, pp. 1181-1193, Oct. 2001
  • V.R. Voller, C.R. Swaminathan and B.G. Thomas, “Fixed grid techniques for phase change problems: a review,” International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 875-898, Sep. 1990
  • B.G. Thomas, L.J. Mika and F.M. Najjar, “Simulation of fluid flow inside a continuous slab-casting machine,” Metallurgical Transactions B, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 387-400, Apr. 1990

Recent Courses

  • Manufacturing Processes
  • Senior Design