Influence of SEN depth and port angle on vertical electromagnetic brake effects in continuous casting mould

Purpose To effectively control the molten steel flow and the stability of free surface in continuous casting mould, this paper aims to propose a new type electromagnetic brake technique, namely, vertical electromagnetic brake (V-EMBr). Its brake effect under special processing parameters such as submerged entry nozzle (SEN) depth and port angle is evaluated by the numerical simulation methods. Design/methodology/approach A couple three-dimensional mathematical model of fluid flow and static magnetic field was developed to investigate the behaviour of molten steel flow and steel/slag interface in the continuous casting mould, and a volume of fluid model is used to track the interfacial behaviour of molten steel and liquid slag by solving the continuity equation of the phase volume fraction. Findings The simulation results showed that the application of V-EMBr can significantly reduce the flow intensity in upper recirculation zone and decrease the meniscus height and the flow velocity of molten steel in the vicinity of narrow side of mould, which is beneficial to reduce the possibility of mould flux entrapment. Especially, the brake effect of V-EMBr has a little affected by the SEN depth and port angle, which is helpful for V-EMBr to better adapt the actual continuous casting process. Originality/value Compared to the conventional-level EMBr, the new proposed V-EMBr has the advantage to effectively control the molten steel flow and steel/slag interfacial fluctuation in the vicinity of narrow side of mould with a pair of magnetic fields, and its brake effect is less affected by the changes in continuous casting processing parameters.

Water Model Experiments on Surface Flow Velocity of Molten Steel in Slab Caster Mold

Based on the slab caster mold of ChengGang Company as prototype, the water model with 1:1 scale was used to study the effects of casting speed、nozzle port angle、immersion depth、bottom structure、mold width and other parameters on the surface flow velocity of liquid steel in slab caster mold. The results show that the effect of casting speed is biggest and with increase in the casting speed, the surface flow velocity of liquid steel is prominently increased, when the mold width at 1650mm, the surface flow velocity from 0.04m/s to 0.1m/s with the casting speed from 0.7m/min increased to 1.4m/min

Simulation of Shell Thickness Distribution and Flow Field in Slab Continuous Casting Mold

The shell distribution in the slab continuous casting mold has been simulated coupling a 3-D flow, temperature and volume fraction equations of the molten steel in FLUENT. The simulated results show that the flow velocity around the upper vortex center is decrease and the location of lower vortex center move down as the nozzle port angle increases. The simulated shell thickness in the center on the narrow face become thicker at meniscus and the shell thickness in the center on wide face decreases but the basic distributions of the shell tend to consistency as the nozzle port angle increases. The simulated results also show that the effects of solidified shell on flow field in mold is slight but the velocity of molten steel near the solidified shell. There are remelting near the impact regoins implicit our attentions in order to avoid breaking out.