A criterion for water modeling of non-isothermal melt flows in continuous casting tundishes

Abstract

Water modeling of tundish melt flows offers useful insight into the underlying flow phenomena occurring in the tundish. To date most of the water modeling studies have been carried out under isothermal conditions; usually at room temperature. However, fluid flow in continuous casting tundishes is normally not isothermal. By analyzing the dimensionless turbulent Navier-Stokes equation, a modeling criterion is proposed which may be adequate to simulate the flow of molten metal in continuous casting tundishes by means of water modeling. The criterion was tested for a few hypothetical test cases by means of water modeling as well as mathematical modeling. Good agreement between the residence time distribution curves was obtained in the test cases considered when the proposed modeling criterion was satisfied.