A Model Study of Inclusions Deposition, Macroscopic Transport, and Dynamic Removal at Steel–Slag Interface for Different Tundish Designs

Abstract

This paper presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results of inclusions macroscopic transport as well as dynamic removal in tundishes. A novel treatment was implemented using the deposition velocity calculated by a revised unified Eulerian deposition model to replace the widely used Stokes rising velocity in the boundary conditions for inclusions removal at the steel–slag interface in tundishes. In this study, the dynamic removal for different size groups of inclusions at different steel–slag interfaces (smooth or rough) with different absorption conditions at the interface (partially or fully absorbed) in two tundish designs was studied. The results showed that the dynamic removal ratios were higher for larger inclusions than for smaller inclusions. Besides, the dynamic removal ratio was higher for rough interfaces than for smooth interfaces. On the other hand, regarding the cases when inclusions are partially or fully absorbed at a smooth steel–slag interface, the removal ratio values are proportional to the absorption proportion of inclusions at the steel–slag interface. Furthermore, the removal of inclusions in two tundish designs, i.e., with and without a weir and a dam were compared. Specifically, the tundish with a weir and a dam exhibited a better performance with respect to the removal of bigger inclusions (radii of 5, 7, and 9 μm) than that of the case without weir and dam. That was found to be due to the strong paralleling flow near the middle part of the top surface. However, the tundish without weir and dam showed a higher removal ratio of smaller inclusions (radius of 1 μm). The reason could be the presence of a paralleling flow near the inlet zone, where the inclusions deposition velocities were much higher than in other parts.