Summary: This article describes a CFD model to predict the heat and mass transfer in the region of the initial contact of a liquid metal supplied to a cooled moving substrate. The situation resembles closely the early conditions for solid phase surface formation in many continuous casting operations. For near-net-shape applications where surface finish is important, the article describes a modeling approach for incorporating the key elements of water side cooling, intervening moving substrate, active contact layer, and liquid metal with binary-alloy solidification behavior. These elements provide the necessary macroscale results for incorporating models of the microstructure development of the cast along the surface. For the present article the results are compared to experimental data derived from the continuous casting of Al-4.5 wt%Cu.