STEEL Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is India's largest steel producer. It ownes and operates five integrated steel plants located at Rourkela, Bhilai, Dugapur, Bokaro and Burnpur and three special steel plants at Salem, Durgapur and Bhadravati. It also has a subsidiary at Chadnrapur producing ferro alloys. SAIL has various casters in different steel plants. Automatic Mould Level ControEers play an important role in these casters for quality production. Continuous casting has increased in importance in the manufacture of steels in the past three decades. The quality of steel produced by continuous casting is greatly affected by fluid flow phenomenon in the mould region. Even small improvements to the established process have a large impact. Hence, it is an ideal candidate for optimisation using advanced simulation. Flow enters the mould through a submerged entry nozzle which is partly constricted by a slide gate or stopper rod that is used to control the flow rate. The complex geometry of the nozzle ports can direct the steel jets into the mould cavity at a variety of angles, turbulence levels, and swirl components. Inside the mould cavity, the flow circulates within the liquid pool. The steel jets traverse the liquid pool to impinge against the narrow faces of the mould where their superheat may cause breakouts due to shell-thinning. The flow pattern is controlled by the forces of momentum, and possibly also by electromagnetic, or by the buoyancy from introduced gas bubbles. The layout of a typical continuous caster is shown in Fig1 and flow of steel from the tundish is shown in Fig 2.
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