Comparison of four methods to evaluate flow fields in CSP casting mould

Abstract

Commercial flow analysis tools are widely used in industry, but their capacity, efficiency and accuracy to solve complex flows are not so clear. In the present paper, first, three-dimensional computations are performed to calculate the flow field in the mould region of compact strip production (CSP) casting using a conventional finite volume method program, CFX4, with laminar model, standard k–ϵ model, renormalisation group k–ϵ model and low Reynolds number k–ϵ model with default model parameters for handling turbulence. Next, these were compared with the flow pattern in a 1 : 1 scale water model by other investigations and quantitative comparisons were made for the flow velocities. Finally, the four numerical simulation models were evaluated in detail. Each method has its own merits and disadvantages, so model verification is always necessary for a highly accurate numerical analysis of complex flows. Under the situation of lacking experimental data, the standard k–ϵ may be a good choice to evaluate liquid steel in a CSP mould.