Numerical and Physical Study on a Cylindrical Tundish Design to Produce a Swirling Flow in the SEN During Continuous Casting of Steel

作者:Ni, Peiyuan*; Wang, Dongxing; Jonsson, Lage Tord Ingemar; Ersson, Mikael; Zhang, Ting-An; Jonsson, Par Goran
来源:Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B-Process Metallurgy and Materials Processing Science, 2017, 48(5): 2695-2706.
DOI:10.1007/s11663-017-1057-y

摘要

A new tundish design was investigated using both water model experiments and numerical simulations. The results show that the Reynolds Stress Model simulation results agree well with the Particle Image Velocimetry-measured results for water model experiments. A strong swirling flow in the Submerged Entry Nozzle (SEN) of the new tundish was successfully obtained, and the tangential velocity in the region near SEN inlet could reach a value of around 3.1 m/s. A high value of the shear stress was found to exist on the SEN wall, due to the strong swirling flow inside the SEN. This large shear stress leads to the dissipation of the rotational momentum of the steel flow. Thus, the maximum tangential velocity of the steel flow decreases from 3.1 m/s at around the SEN inlet to 2.2 m/s at a location close to the SEN outlet. In addition, the near-wall region has a high pressure, which is larger than the atmospheric pressure, due to the centrifugal effect. The calculated swirl number, with the value of around 1.6 at SEN inlet, illustrates that the current design can produce a similar strong swirling flow compared to the swirl blade method and the electromagnetic stirring method, while this is obtained by simply changing the steel flow path in tundish instead of using additional device to influence the flow.