Physical and numerical modeling of multiphase flows during Continuous Casting

The quality of Continuous Casting (CC) products are highly connected to the flow of the liquid metal and injected argon inside the mould. Therefore, both physical and numerical modelling has been performed to investigate the metal flow inside the CC mould.A physical model has been used for investigating the flow inside the mould. Therefore, it uses a re-circulating technique along with a Bi-Sn alloy for representing the liquid steel. Moreover, velocity measurements using a Vives electromagnetic probe have been carried out where typical CC flow structures such as jet, upper and lower rolls were found. Overall, good contact between the metal and the Vives probe was achieved.The experiments showed that argon bubbles were possible to both count and classify using a high-speed camera with a framing rate of 500 frames per second. Almost 45% of the bubbles were discovered in the middle region of the mould (20% of the mould top surface area, central plane parallel to the wide faces). It was also found that the nozzle was misaligned.Levels of both alloy and the covering silicone oil were measured simultaneously using a Light beam sensor, which measured both levels at high accuracy. The usage of argon made the oil dirty, which in time made impossible to measure the level using the Light beam sensor.Argon bubbles along with a thin silicone oil layer were numerical modelled using a Discrete Phase Model combined with a Volume Of Fluid in a three dimensional model. This was solved using ANSYS Fluent 14.5.7. The fluid flow fields give streamlines that allows for further investigating of the flow patterns inside the model. In addition to these, more quantities can be post-processed for investigating different features of the flow. Also, bubbles were counted and it was shown that almost 50% of the bubbles were released within the middle region of the mould.Validerat; 20140613 (global_studentproject_submitter