H. Bai et Bg. Thomas, Turbulent flow of liquid steel and argon bubbles in slide-gate tundish nozzles: Part I. Model development and validation, MET MAT T B, 32(2), 2001, pp. 253-267
Citations number
33
Categorie Soggetti
Metallurgy
Journal title
METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B-PROCESS METALLURGY AND MATERIALS PROCESSING SCIENCE
The quality of continuous-cast steel is greatly affected by the flow patter
n in the mold, which depends mainly on the jets flowing from the outlet por
ts in casting with submerged tundish nozzles. An Eulerian multiphase model
using the finite-difference program CFX has been applied to study the three
-dimensional (3-D) turbulent flow of liquid steel with argon bubbles in sli
de-gate tundish nuzzles. Part I of this two-part article describes the mode
l formulation, grid refinement, convergence strategies, and validation of t
his model. Equations to quantify average jet properties at the nozzle exit
are presented. Most of the gas exits the upper portion of the nozzle port,
while the main downward swirling flow contains very little gas. Particle-im
age velocimetry (PIV) measurements are performed on a 0.4-scale water model
to determine the detailed nature of the swirling velocity profile exiting
the nozzle. Predictions with the computational model agree well with the PI
V measurements. The computational model is suitable for simulating disperse
d bubbly flows, which exist for a wide range of practical gas injection rat
es. The model is used for extensive parametric studies of the effects of ca
sting operation conditions and nozzle design, which are reported in Part II
of this two-part article.