Modeling of Wall Shear Stress Induced Inclusion Transport and Removal in Multi-Strand Tundish

Erosion of refractory lining due to flow induced wall shear stress is one among severe problems that shop floor personnel face in continuous casting tundish operation. It decreases the lining life and increases overall operational cost. Wall shear stress due to turbulent flow is one of the major factors of erosion of lining in tundish. Inclusion generation due to erosion creates surface defects that may lead to the rejection of the final products. Turbulent inhibitor box (TIB) helps in reducing the wall shear stress by confining the turbulent flow zone and hence changes the flow pattern. In the present work, three-dimensional fluid flow study has been carried out to investigate the flow induced wall shear stress. High shear stress zones (HSSZ) are taken as potential inclusion generation sites. Different sizes of inclusions are injected from those sites and their paths are tracked. It is found that the shape of TIB significantly affects the flow induced wall shear stress and inclusion removal rate. Results indicate that tundish with TIB 3 arrangement exhibited minimum wall shear stress at all walls. TIB 2 coupled tundish gives the highest removal rate in case of bottom wall originated small size inclusions (