Numerical simulation of multi-array spray cooling for hot rolled seamless steel pipes

Abstract

Spray cooling technology is an efficient cooling method. In the industrial application, the large area cooling requires the multi-nozzle spray design. Reasonable selection of nozzle array form is particularly important. Therefore, the simulation is applied in this study to investigate the effect of the nozzle array on the spray cooling of steel pipes after the model is validated. A steel pipe with a diameter of 140 mm, a wall thickness of 20 mm, and a length of 350 mm is employed as the research object, with an initial temperature of 900 °C. The scheme has four options for double spray spacing: OLR = −15 %, 0 %, 15 %, and 30 %. The results show that when the OLR grows, the cooling area gradually diminishes, and the cooling area's average temperature and average surface heat flux fall and subsequently increase. When OLR=30 %, the best cooling zone shape is obtained. The minimum average temperature, 231 °C, is obtained when OLR = 15 %. After comprehensive analysis, the ideal spray spacing range is found at OLR = 15 %∼30 %. In order to study the nozzle array, spray nozzles are arranged in multiple rows according to OLR = 30 %. This study also explores the strategies of unidirectional inclined spray and opposite inclined spray for lessening the area of the hot spot. There are six nozzle array arrangements in total. By comparing the results, it is discovered that the inclined spray increases the cooling area and accelerates the surface cooling of steel pipes. Under the side-by-side unidirectional inclined spray and the staggered unidirectional inclined spray, the cooling areas are 146,868 mm2 and 142,914 mm2 respectively, the average temperatures are 157.09 °C and 154.28 °C respectively. It is indicated that side-by-side inclined spray and staggered inclined spray are the better nozzle array arrangement to obtain the maximum cooling efficiency.