Physical and Mathematical Modeling of Steel Flow and Heat Transfer in Tundishes under Non-isothermal and Non-adiabatic Conditions

Abstract

Steel flow and heat transfer in tundishes under non-isothermal and non-adiabatic conditions are physically and mathematically modeled. For this purpose thermal step inputs in both types of models are applied and temperature measurements as well as computations of flow and heat transfer at unsteady state are carried out.
Experimental measurements of output responses to thermal step inputs fed in the tundish model and the transient solution of the three dimensional Navier-Stoke's equations keep a very good agreement.
Isothermal lines of water model and those belonging to the prototype under non-adabatic conditions are not equivalent for the same thermal step input and this promotes different velocity fields of water in the model and liquied steel in the prototype.
As velocity fields have a direct influence on inclusions removal from steel to the covering tundish slag it is recommended to have caution on the employment of non-isothermal water models to interpret the actual behavior of steel flow and inclusions dynamics in industrial tundishes.