Physical Simulation of the Flow Field in a Vertical Twin Roll Strip Caster - A Water Model Study

• Published in: Steel research international 2015-07, Vol.86 (7), p.716-723
• Main Authors: Pelss, Arnis, Rückert, Antje, Pfeifer, Herbert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Casting; Continuous casting; Physical simulation; Pools; Simulation; Slab casting; Steel; Strip; Strip casting; Twin roll casting; twin roll strip casting; Twin rolls; watermodeling
• ISSN: 1611-3683; 1869-344X
• DOI: 10.1002/srin.201400150

Twin‐roll strip casting is a near‐net shape method for the production of metal strips in the range of several millimeters. The benefit in comparison to other methods is the short length of the facility and the lowered energy consumption in comparison to conventional continuous slab casting. This results in a reduction of costs and large energy savings by up to 85%. In this work the flow inside the pool of a twin roll strip caster is investigated. A modular submerged entry nozzle (SEN) was designed, which allows an adjustment of the flow for the single submerged faces of the SEN in the pool. This makes it possible to control the flow in several ways, to create different flow patterns. The measurements were made for a steady state. For the measurements in the pool the particle image velocimetry method (PIV) was used to determine two‐dimensional velocity fields. The surface motion at the rolls was investigated by video analysis. It was shown that this experimental setup is suitable to create several characteristic flow patterns inside the pool by combining the three main flows (front, long, and bottom). Also, it was obtained that high volume flows through the front chambers create a very uneven meniscus with large differences in height. The best result correlated to the meniscus was achieved for a medium volume flow at the long chambers and a high volume flow through the bottom. The visualization of the flow inside the pool of a twin roll strip caster is important for the process. In this study, the flow is systematically investigated for different volume flow distributions in a full scale water model. Therefore the particle image velocimetry method and video analysis are used to determine the main flow patterns.