SIMILARITY CONSIDERATIONS IN THE PHYSICAL MODELING OF STEEL MAKING TUNDISH SYSTEMS

To assess and quantify the relative importance of Reynolds and Froude numbers in reduced scale model studies (these cannot be simultaneously respected when the scale factor is less than unity), aqueous model in vestigations were carried out on three different laboratory scale tund ish models. The experimental tundish systems included two strand, five strand skewed delta shaped and six strand rectangular shaped vessels. Experimental observations show that the depth of liquid in the model would only correspond to that in the full scale system, provided the m odel flow rate is scaled in accordance with the relationship: Q(m) = l ambda(5/2)Q(f.s), in which, lambda is the geometrical scaling factor. Furthermore, on the basis of residence time distribution measurements in two different configurations of the five strand tundish, it was dem onstrated explicitly that flow phenomena in tundish systems are largel y dominated by inertial forces and are therefore, essentially Froude d ominated.