Effect of Flow Rate Controllers and their Opening Levels on Liquid Steel Flow in Continuous Casting Mold

The present study investigates the mold flow structure at constant throughput condition for different slide-gate and stopper rod openings by utilizing computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling. Detailed validation of the CFD models are conducted using available experimental data and the performances of three different turbulence models, standard k-ε, realizable k-ε and k-ω SST are compared. The constant throughput casting operations for different slide-gate and stopper rod controller openings are simulated to quantify the effect of flow controllers and their opening levels on mold flow. The results indicate that for a slide-gate controlled system, the meniscus velocities are significantly affected by the changes in the opening level. The steady state operations do not provide the same mold flow if the slide-gate opening is altered. However, for the stopper rod controlled system the stopper rod opening level changes do not affect the meniscus velocities and the flow structures within the mold.