The Effects of a Submerged Entry Nozzle on Flow and Initial Solidification in a Continuous Casting Bloom Mold with Electromagnetic Stirring

The melt flow, level fluctuation, temperature field, and solidification behavior coupled with electromagnetic stirring (EMS) effects in the continuous casting mold region of U71Mn steel bloom were numerically analyzed by commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software named ANSYS FLUENT. The effects of submerged entry nozzle (SEN) structures and the installation methods for optimized four-port SEN on the flow pattern, level fluctuation, heat transfer and initial solidification behavior in a bloom mold loaded with EMS were investigated. The aim is to propose a better SEN condition for the big bloom casting of high railway steel. The water simulation experiments were conducted to show the flow characteristics under different SEN conditions and verify the numerical model of flow pattern. The experimental and numerical simulation results showed that the optimized four-port SEN with diagonal installation cannot only improve the flow pattern of the molten steel by alleviating the level fluctuation and reducing the impact pressure to the wall. It is also beneficial for temperature variation at both bloom surface and corner, as well as the local solidified shell thinning phenomena due to the elimination of impingement effect.