Simulation of continuous casting tundish

One of the most important quality problems in continuously cast steels are inclusions. Especially for the production of high quality steels, it is essential to the amount reduce non-metallic inclusions. For this purpose, it is of crucial importance to prevent the reoxidation of the liquid steel during casting, to facilitate the inclusion separation in the tundish and mould as well as to improve the cleanliness of the steel already in the ladle. Thermal losses and temperature difference between strands should also be minimised in the tundish. Physical modelling using water models is a quite widely used method to study the flow phenomena in tundish. However, water models have some drawbacks and in recent years, mathematical simulation has become more and more popular because of developments both in computing hardware and software. It is still, however, difficult to model and simulate dynamic situations (ladle change, start of the casting, etc.) by mathematical models. In this research, a continuous casting bloom tundish is modelled and dynamically simulated using CFD in order to describe flow fields and temperature distribution in the tundish and to track down particle movement during steady state flow and dynamic oscillation of the tundish surface level. The project work was generally aimed at improving dynamic modelling techniques for the evaluation of continuous casting tundish design and operation.