Modelling and validation of fluid flow inside a dissipative ladle shroud and a continuous casting tundish

Abstract

Fluid flow plays a significant role in the continuous casting of molten steel. In this paper, two Reynolds Averaged Naiver-Stokes (RANS) models and a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model were comparatively employed to characterize the fluid flow inside a dissipative ladle shroud and a tundish. LES model was proved to be powerful to characterize the turbulence structure inside the ladle shroud. The effect of meshing density on the computational accuracy was considered using the LES model. The fine-mesh model can capture multiscale vortices inside the ladle shroud; while, the coarse-mesh model disables the LES to obtain the detailed flow information. The experiment of particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to verify the flow field obtained by the LES model inside the tundish. The PIV and the LES results agree well in terms of flow pattern and velocity vector.