Physical and Numerical Simulation of the Fluid Flow and Temperature Distribution in Bloom Continuous Casting Mold

Abstract

For the purpose of improving the quality of low‐alloy steel production, the influence of the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) on fluid flow and temperature field in a bloom mold sized 250 × 350 mm is investigated by using a 1:0.8 ratio water model and a three‐dimensional mathematical model. The results show that the level fluctuation with the one‐port SEN is weak (below 0.55 mm) and supercooling at free surface is relatively high (around 10.0 K), which go against the flux melting. Compared with the one‐port SEN, the high temperature zones of the mold for the two‐port and four‐port SEN concentrate in the upper part with fully developed equiaxed area. However, the highest mean wave height (around 2.91 mm) and the uneven distribution of temperature will cause the two‐port SEN slag entrapment and non‐uniform solidified shell. With the four‐port SEN, a reasonable level fluctuation (about 1.60 mm) and uniform supercooling (around 2.8 K) near the free surface will favor to heat transfer and the equiaxed crystal formation. The practical production shows that the application of four‐port SEN significantly improves the center equiaxed crystal ratio, and the center segregation indexes of carbon and chrome are effectively decreased with the non‐metallic inclusions grades obviously decreases simultaneously.