Turbulent flow phenomena and Ce2O3 behavior during a steel teeming process

Abstract

Steel flow phenomena and Ce2O3 inclusion behavior are presented in this paper. A three-dimensional model was developed to describe the steel flow phenomena and the inclusion behavior during a teeming process. The Kim-Chen modified k-ε turbulent model was used to simulate the turbulence properties and the Height-of-Liquid model was used to capture the interface between gas and steel. A Lagrangian method was then used to track the inclusions and to compare the behaviors of different-size inclusions in the steel flow. In addition, a statistical analysis was carried out by the use of a stochastic turbulence model to investigate the behaviors of different-size inclusions at different nozzle regions. The results show that the steel flow was the most turbulent at the connection region of the straight pipe part and the expanding part of the nozzle. All inclusions with a diameter smaller than 20 μm were found to have a similar trajectory and velocity distribution in the nozzle. However, inertia force and buoyancy force were found to play an important role for the behaviors of large-size inclusions/clusters. The statistical analysis results indicate that the regions close to the connection region between different angled nozzle parts seem to be very sensitive with respect to deposition of inclusions. © 2013 ISIJ.