A mathematic model considering the bubble coalescence and breakup using the Euler-Lagrange approach has been developed to study the effect of the initial bubble size on the distribution of bubbles captured by the solidification shell. A hard sphere model was applied for dealing with the bubble collision. Advanced bubble coalescence and breakup models suitable for the continuous casting system and an advanced bubble captured criteria have been identified established with the help of user-defined functions of FLUENT. The predictions of bubble behavior and captured bubble distribution agree with the water model and plant measurements well respectively. The results show that the number of small bubbles captured by solidification shell is much higher than that of large bubbles. What is more, the number of captured bubbles at the sidewalls decreases with the distance from the meniscus. For the case of large gas flow rate (gas flow fraction of 8.2%), the initial size of bubbles has little effect on bubble captured distribution under various casting speeds. When the gas flow rate is small (gas flow fraction of 4.1%), the number density of captured bubbles increases as the initial bubble size increases, and the effect of initial bubbles size on captured bubble number density is amplified when the casting speed decreases. The average captured bubble diameter is about 0.12–0.14 mm. Additionally, for all cases, the initial bubble size hardly affects the average size of captured bubbles.
Physical modeling of turbulent multiphase flow in a continuous casting steel mold
