Experimental investigation of high-temperature steel plate cooled by multiple nozzle arrays

Abstract

Thermo-mechanical controlled process (TMCP) technology has been widely used to improve controlled cooling technology during the hot rolled plate manufacturing process. Multiple impinging jets are the main cooling form used in plate cooling process of the steel mills. In this work, we mainly focused on the surface flow field and heat transfer of high-temperature plate (700°C) cooled by nine-nozzle arrays with different Reynolds numbers. The distribution of turbulent kinetic energy and water velocity vector were numerically studied. By analyzing the simulation results and measuring temperature data, the maximum heat flux, the corresponding surface temperature and time at each measurement point were found to be dependent on the distance from the impinging point and the jet velocity. No obvious maximum heat flux elevation for the locations between jets was observed, where the wetting speed was also slow with Reynolds numbers lower than 8 278. These results are valuable in interpreting the heat transfer mechanism under jet arrays and predicting the cooling rate, and forecasting the microstructure of the steel product.