Effects of a Magnetic Field on Turbulent Flow in the Mold Region of a Steel Caster

Electromagnetic braking (EMBr) greatly influences turbulent flow in the continuous casting mold and its transient stability, which affects level fluctuations and inclusion entrainment. Large eddy simulations are performed to investigate these transient flow phenomena using an accurate numerical scheme implemented on a graphics processing unit. The important effect of the current flow through the conducting solid steel shell on stabilizing the fluid flow pattern is investigated. The computational model is first validated with measurements made in a scaled physical model with a low melting point liquid metal and is then applied to a full-scale industrial caster. The overall flow field in the scale model was matched in the real caster by keeping only the Stuart number constant. The free surface-level behaviors can be matched by scaling the results using a similarity criterion based on the ratio of the Froude numbers. The transient behavior of the mold flow reveals the effects of EMBr on stability of the jet, top surface velocities, surface-level profiles, and surface-level fluctuations. (C) The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2013