Hydraulic and numerical simulation of flow field characteristics in induction heating continuous casting tundish

Abstract

The flow state of the melt inside the continuous casting tundish plays a decisive role in the realisation of metallurgical function. With the application of tundish induction heating, much attention has been paid to the influence of the internal non-isothermal state caused by supplementary heating on the flow field. In this study, hydraulic and numerical simulations combined with particle image velocimetry are used to quantitatively study the internal flow field under channel-type tundish with induction heating. Simultaneously, the effect of induction heating on the flow state of the flow field is investigated. The results show that the internal heating of the tundish channel not only enhances the range and intensity of turbulence distribution, but also significantly improves the flow state of the flow field. By comparing the velocity distribution of the tundish liquid surface measured by hydraulic simulation, it is found that the average velocity under non-isothermal conditions is 0.066 m/s, which is 47% higher than that under isothermal conditions. Finally, the standard deviation of peak time and actual residence time for the residence time distribution curve of tundish changes from 278 and 217 s to 202 and 148 s, respectively, before and after supplementing channel heating, which shows that it can indeed improve the consistency of each flow.