Application of a Swirling Flow Producer in a Conventional Tundish during Continuous Casting of Steel

摘要

A swirling flow producer was designed for a conventional tundish in order to produce a swirling flow in the SEN driven by the steel flow potential. CFD simulations were carried out to investigate the flow phenomena in the new tundish system. The results show that a swirling flow in the tundish SEN was successfully obtained. The swirl number of the obtained steel flow inside the SEN can reach a value of 1.34, with a tangential velocity of around 2.8 m/s. The possibility of slag entrainment at the top of the tundish was estimated by analyzing the steel flow characteristics near the top surface. The calculated Weber Number is around 0.3 outside the cylinder, which indicates a low possibility of slag entrainment. A high value of shear stress was found on the SEN wall. This is due to the rotational steel flow in SEN. Also, non-metallic inclusions were tracked in the fully developed steel flow field. It was found that the number of inclusions that touch the top surface increases with an increased inclusion size. Small size inclusions mainly move into the cylinder from the left side of tangential inlet. Therefore, methods like installing a dam at the tundish bottom may be helpful to change the inclusion trajectories to move towards the top of the tundish.