Intensification of liquid steel active flow volume in one-strand tundish using a modified ladle shroud

This work presents the numerical and physical simulation results of the liquid steel flow in the one-strand tundish. The results obtained during the numerical simulations and the water modeling results were compared to each other. Six types of turbulence models were tested. Among tested turbulence models the BSL k-ω was turned out the best correlating with the results from the laboratory experiments. Besides, the ladle shroud modification was proposed by the authors and the influence of the modified ladle shroud immersion depth in the liquid steel on the hydrodynamic structure in the tundish was checked. The ladle shroud modification depended on the expansion, narrowing, and re-expansion of the liquid steel feed stream. The four tundish variants with the four different ladle shroud immersion depths (at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 m) in the liquid steel were tested. The liquid steel flow volumes were calculated and according to the generated active flow volume, the most beneficial research case was indicated. The tundish variant with the ladle shroud immersion depth of 0.3 m in the liquid steel was characterized by the lowest stagnant flow volume. The numerical simulations were performed by using the Ansys-Fluent computer program.