Inertial and buoyancy driven water flows under gas bubbling and thermal stratification conditions in a tundish model

Steel flow dominated by inertial and buoyancy flows under gas bubbling and thermal stratification conditions, in a one-strand tundish, was studied using a 2/5 scale water model. The use of a turbulence inhibitor yields plug flow volume fractions well above 40 pct for a casting rate of 3.12 tons/min under isothermal conditions. Small flow rates of gas injection (246 cm³/min), through a gas curtain, improved the fluid flow by enhancing the plug flow volume fraction. Higher flow rates originated an increase of back-mixing flow, thus forming recirculating flows in both sides of this curtain. Step inputs of hot water drove streams of this fluid toward the bath surface due to buoyancy forces. A rise in gas flow rate led to a thermal homogenization in two separated cells of flow located at each side of the gas curtain. Step inputs of cold water drove streams of fluid along the tundish bottom. Use of the gas curtain homogenized the lower part of the tundish as well as the upper part of the bath at the left side of the curtain. However, temperature at the top corner of the tundish, in the outlet box, remained very different than the rest of the temperatures inside this tundish. High gas flow rates (912 cm³/min) were required to homogenize the bath after times as long as twice the mean residence time of the fluid. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements corroborated the formation of recirculating flows at both sides of the gas curtain.