Numerical Study on the Effect of a Novel Swirling Flow Generator for Submerged Entry Nozzle in Tundish

The swirling flow in the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) is found to significantly improve the flow pattern in the mold, as well as the quality of the steel products. However, the devices generating swirling flow designed so far are mostly limited to be applied in the industries due to the cost, lifetime, external facility, and so on. Herein, a novel swirling flow generator (SFG) is intended to be installed in the conventional tundish to generate a swirling flow in the SEN driven by the gravitational potential energy of the molten steel. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed to investigate the effects of the SFG by comparing the flow pattern in the conventional tundish. The result shows that a swirling flow is produced in the SEN without bringing a serious disturbance to the flow distribution in the tundish. The flow in the SEN becomes much even by adopting the SFG and the swirling velocity is found to decrease with the increasing distance from the bottom of the tundish. A parameter called swirling intensity is proposed to quantitatively evaluate the intensity of the swirling in the SEN. A novel swirling flow generator is intended to generate a swirling flow in the submerged entry nozzle (SEN). Computational fluid dynamics simulation indicates that the device has limited effect to the flow pattern in the tundish. The flow characteristics in the SEN were discussed and a parameter is proposed to evaluate the intensity of the swirling flow.