ESTUDO DO MECANISMO DE CLOGGING NA REGIÃO DA VÁLVULA TAMPÃO EMPREGANDO CFD

Inclusions deposition on stopper rod and submerged entry nozzle is a problem which may occur in every steel plant, leading to casting interruption, operational instabilities and increase in costs. This paper seeks to analyze the influence of molten steel flow pattern on alumina inclusions deposition at stopper rod. A computational fluid dynamical model is employed in order to characterize the flow in that region. A 3-dimensionalgeometry of the nozzle region was built. Molten steel flow and inclusions deposition are computed through eulerian and lagrangian approaches, accordingly. Different nozzle openings are evaluated in order to visualize the steel flow and to relate alumina deposition rate with it. The results show that there is a recirculation that occurs in the stopper rod tip and it is related to the nozzle openings. It is seen that larger nozzle openings tends to lower the inclusions deposition rate.