Numerical study on a new swirling flow pocket brick for tundish upper nozzle during continuous casting of steel

ABSTRACTIn this study, a new, simple-structured swirling flow pocket brick (SFPB) equipped on the upper nozzle of a tundish is proposed. Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effect of the SFPB on the liquid steel flow in the tundish and nozzle in comparison with that in a conventional tundish. The results indicate that the SFPB can reduce the dead volume fraction, increase the mixed flow volume with low risk of slag entrapment in the tundish, and generate a swirling flow in the nozzle. As the distance from the nozzle inlet increases, the swirling velocity decreases and the static pressure in the nozzle section increases. A higher velocity and static pressure are recorded in the near-wall region at the upper part of the nozzle, where the turbulent kinetic energy decreases significantly from 0.037 m2 s−2 in a conventional tundish nozzle to 0.013 m2 s−2 in the proposed SFPB tundish..KEYWORDS: Swirling flowtundishnozzlewall shear stresspocket brick‌residence time distributionnumerical simulationcontinuous casting Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 51974213, 51874215].