Effect of Thermal Buoyancy on Fluid Flow and Residence-Time Distribution in a Single-Strand Tundish

Natural convection of molten steel flow in a tundish occurs due to the temperature variation of the inlet stream and heat losses through top surface and refractory walls. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was applied to study the effect of thermal buoyancy on fluid flow and residence-time d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Materials 2021-04, Vol.14 (8), p.1906
Main Authors: Sheng, Dong-Yuan, Jönsson, Pär G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boundary conditions
Buoyancy
Computational fluid dynamics
computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
Continuous casting
Control equipment
Flow control
Flow distribution
Fluid dynamics
Fluid flow
Free convection
Heat loss
Heat transfer
Liquid metals
Mathematical models
mixing
Physical simulation
Plug flow
residence-time distribution (RTD)
Simulation
thermal buoyancy
Tundishes
Turbulence models
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Summary:Natural convection of molten steel flow in a tundish occurs due to the temperature variation of the inlet stream and heat losses through top surface and refractory walls. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was applied to study the effect of thermal buoyancy on fluid flow and residence-time distribution in a single-strand tundish. The CFD model was first validated with the experimental data from a non-isothermal water model and then applied to both scale-down model and prototype. The effects of flow control devices, including weir, dam and turbulence inhibitor, were compared and analyzed. Parameter studies of different heat losses through the top surface were performed. The results show that thermal buoyancy has a significant impact on the flow pattern and temperature distributions of molten steel in the tundish. The increase of heat loss through the top surface shortens the mean residence time of molten steel in the tundish, leading to an increase in dead volume fraction and a decrease in plug flow volume fraction.
ISSN:1996-1944
1996-1944
DOI:10.3390/ma14081906