Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in a Tundish with Channel Type Induction Heating

Abstract

Because of the high heating efficiency, channel type induction heating is utilized in the tundish in order to reduce the temperature fluctuations of the molten steel in the process of continuous casting. In order to have a deep insight into the complex MHD (magneto hydrodynamic) process in the tundish with channel type induction heating, water model and mathematical model are performed to describe the fluid flow and the heat transfer in the tundish. A non‐isothermal water model with channel heater is built to investigate the thermal convection in the tundish. The electromagnetic force and Joule heating are introduced into the momentum equations and the energy conservation equation as a source term, and the coupled flow and temperature field are solved by the finite volume method. The results show that the predicted flow field and temperature field agree with the experimental data. In the case of channel type induction heating, there are two spiral flow in the channel due to electromagnetic force, and the temperature difference of molten steel is 12 °C between the inlet and the outlet of the channel due to Joule heating.