Numerical and Physical Parametric Analysis of a SEN with Flow Conditioners in Slab Continuous Casting Mold

Abstract

Some of the most recent technologies that improves the performance in continuous casting process has installed infrastructure outside the mold to modify the natural fluid flow pattern to obtain a quasi-steady condition and promote a uniform solidified shell of steel. The submerged entry nozzle distributes the liquid steel in the mold and can be used to obtain the flow symmetry condition with external geometry improvements. The fluid flow conditioners were located near the outlet ports of the nozzle. The aim of the modifiers is to impose a pseudo symmetric pattern in the upper zone of the mold by inhibiting the fluid exchange between the zones created by conditioners. This work evaluates the effect of the thickness and length of the fluid-flow modifiers on the overall performance of the submerged nozzle. These properties of the fluid-flow modifiers were normalized based on two of the geometric dimensions of the standard equipment. Numerical and physical simulations suggest that the flow modifier should be as thin as possible.

Keywords

• Submerged entry nozzle
• fluid-flow modifiers
• continuous casting of steel
• mold flow patterns
• turbulence