A comparative experimental and numerical study to investigate the relative merits of convectors and “C” inserts in cooling cold-rolled coils

Abstract

The coil cooling and storage unit (CCSU) is used to cool cold-rolled coils to the temper rolling temperature after the annealing cycle is over at the batch annealing furnace (BAF) in a cold rolling mill (CRM). In the CCSU, the coils are kept on the cooling bases for any fixed time irrespective of the grade and tonnage. Therefore, the need for a mathematical model to accurately predict the cooling time of the coils was felt. The current study involves experimental and numerical analysis of a stack of coils with respect to heat transfer and fluid flow. A comparative study was carried out to ascertain the relative merits of convectors and “C” inserts (CIs) in the cooling the coils. The air flow distribution for the case of different convectors and CIs was measured by means of a full scale physical model. Two different mathematical models were applied to model the fluid flow and flow distribution through the stack of coils. The first flow model uses the hydraulic resistance concept for estimating the air flow rate distribution, whereas the second flow model uses commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and predicts the velocity distribution in the flow path between two coils in a stack. The predictions from these two models compare well with the experimental data. The flow models were used to calculate the average heat-transfer coefficient in different flow passages in a stack. The heat-transfer coefficients thus obtained were used to tune and validate a two-dimensional transient heat-transfer model of coils. The heat-transfer model predicts the cooling time of coils accurately and also suggests a possible reduction of cooling time if CIs are used in place of convectors.