Physical Experiments and Numerical Simulations of the Influence of Turbulence Inhibitors and the Position of Ladle Shroud on the Steel Flow in an Asymmetric Five-Strand Tundish

Abstract

The submitted article deals with the use of physical and numerical modelling to study the process of the steel flow in an asymmetric five-strand tundish that continuously casts steel. For the purposes of physical modelling, a 1:4-scale plexiglass model was used as the operating tundish, and for numerical modelling, the geometry of the operating tundish was created on a 1:1 scale. A model liquid (water) was used in the physical modelling of the melt flow process, while liquid steel was used as the standard flowing medium in the numerical modelling. We assessed the relevant operating parameters influencing the characteristics of the flow of the bath in the tundish—the shape of the turbulence inhibitor, the position of the ladle shroud in relation to the turbulence inhibitor and the distance between the ladle shroud orifice and the bottom of the turbulence inhibitor. The preliminary results show that optimal steel flow characteristic results are achieved by using the TI3-C configuration. The results from both modelling methods achieved the same characteristics, therefore verifying the results of each other and demonstrating that when taken together, the results of physical and numerical modelling can be considered sufficiently informative.