Abstract
Natural convection of molten steel flow in a tundish occurs due to the temperature variation of the inlet stream and heat losses through top surface and refractory walls. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was applied to study the effect of thermal buoyancy on fluid flow and residence-time distribution in a single-strand tundish. The CFD model was first validated with the experimental data from a non-isothermal water model and then applied to both scale-down model and prototype. The effects of flow control devices, including weir, dam and turbulence inhibitor, were compared and analyzed. Parameter studies of different heat losses through the top surface were performed. The results show that thermal buoyancy has a significant impact on the flow pattern and temperature distributions of molten steel in the tundish. The increase of heat loss through the top surface shortens the mean residence time of molten steel in the tundish, leading to an increase in dead volume fraction and a decrease in plug flow volume fraction.
Highlights
IntroductionA tundish, working as a buffer and distributor of liquid steel between the ladle and continuous casting molds, plays a key role in affecting the performance of casting and solidification, as well as the quality of final products, referred to as “Tundish Metallurgy” [1]
During a continuous casting process, the hotter liquid steel will be poured from the ladle into the tundish
There are conductive heat losses through the wall and radiative heat loss through the bath surface. This leads to a variation of steel temperature in the tundish, which cannot be neglected in both mathematical simulation and practical operation
Summary
A tundish, working as a buffer and distributor of liquid steel between the ladle and continuous casting molds, plays a key role in affecting the performance of casting and solidification, as well as the quality of final products, referred to as “Tundish Metallurgy” [1]. The work on optimizing tundish design and operation parameters to meet the demand of improvement in steel quality is one of important research projects for metallurgists. There are conductive heat losses through the wall and radiative heat loss through the bath surface. This leads to a variation of steel temperature in the tundish, which cannot be neglected in both mathematical simulation and practical operation
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