Abstract
The melt flow, level fluctuation, temperature field, and solidification behavior coupled with electromagnetic stirring (EMS) effects in the continuous casting mold region of U71Mn steel bloom were numerically analyzed by commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software named ANSYS FLUENT. The effects of submerged entry nozzle (SEN) structures and the installation methods for optimized four-port SEN on the flow pattern, level fluctuation, heat transfer and initial solidification behavior in a bloom mold loaded with EMS were investigated. The aim is to propose a better SEN condition for the big bloom casting of high railway steel. The water simulation experiments were conducted to show the flow characteristics under different SEN conditions and verify the numerical model of flow pattern. The experimental and numerical simulation results showed that the optimized four-port SEN with diagonal installation cannot only improve the flow pattern of the molten steel by alleviating the level fluctuation and reducing the impact pressure to the wall. It is also beneficial for temperature variation at both bloom surface and corner, as well as the local solidified shell thinning phenomena due to the elimination of impingement effect.
Highlights
The big bloom continuous caster is widely used to produce high-end steel products, such as heavy rail steel, bearing steel and free-cutting steel
Most defects affecting steel quality in the continuous casting (CC) process are associated with metallurgical behavior in the mold, which is largely determined by the submerged entry nozzle (SEN)
[26]. in the mold zone and the shock pressure on the mold wall can be lightened. This is beneficial to inclusion floatation and improvement of heat transfer, reducing the impacting depth of the poured steel [26]
Summary
The big bloom continuous caster is widely used to produce high-end steel products, such as heavy rail steel, bearing steel and free-cutting steel. Previous works have developed both experimental and numerical models for analyzing the flow [3,4,5] and initial solidification [6,7,8] in the CC mold under different SEN conditions. These studies found that an appropriate SEN structure cannot only enhance the flow field, and improve the heat transfer process in the mold of both slabs and blooms significantly. To ensure good mold metallurgical behavior during a big bloom casting process, a proper type of SEN should be proposed and investigated
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