Abstract
In continuous casting of steel, argon gas injection is a popular method to reduce nozzle clogging. Multiphase turbulent flow of molten steel with argon gas through complicated-geometry nozzles increases the complexity of the flow dynamics. In this study, these complex multiphase turbulent flow behaviors are simulated in a lab-scale continuous caster using a new hybrid model that involves a Eulerian-Eulerian (EE) model coupled simultaneously with a Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The complex behavior of the argon gas including formation of gas pockets, intermittent shearing off of the gas pockets, volumetric expansion, coalescence and breakup of bubbles, and transport of the bubbles in both the nozzle and mold are all simulated. The model is validated with measurements on a benchmark experiment of liquid-metal argon flow in a laboratory-scale system. This hybrid model is a promising tool to estimate realistic bubble size distributions and multiphase flow in a real caster.
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Abbreviations
- \( A_{int} \) :
-
Interface area of gas pocket, \( d \): diameter of a bubble, \( \varvec{F} \): force, \( \varvec{g} \): gravity
- \( m_{b} \) :
-
Mass of a bubble, N: total number of bubble created by shearing off \( p \): pressure
- R:
-
Random number between 0 and 1, r: bubble radius, \( t \): time, \( \varvec{u} \): velocity field, \( u \): velocity magnitude, \( \bar{u}_{\lambda } \): eddy velocity, V: volume, \( \varvec{v}_{\varvec{i}} \): velocity of ith DPM bubble, \( \varvec{v}_{\varvec{i}} ' \): velocity of i-th DPM bubble after collision
- \( We_{c} \) :
-
Critical Weber number, \( \varvec{x}_{\varvec{i}} \): ith DPM bubble velocity, \( \alpha \): EE volume fraction field
- \( \alpha^{ *} \) :
-
Approximated volume fraction field, \( \mu \): viscosity, \( \rho \): density, \( \upvarepsilon \): liquid turbulence dissipation rate
- \( \sigma \) :
-
Surface tension coefficient, \( \delta_{g}^{ * } \): sheared off gas layer thickness
- \( \mathop \sum \limits_{j = 1}^{N} \) :
-
Summation of sheared off bubbles created in one shearing off process
- \( k\,{\text{and}}\,{\text{q}} \) :
-
Arbitrary phase (gas or liquid), B: buoyancy, D: drag, g: gas, l: liquid, lf: liquid film
- N:
-
Normal, t: tangent, new: new position, old: old position, P: pressure gradient, p: parent bubble
- SO:
-
Sheared off, V: virtual mass, 1: smaller bubble in a pair, 2: larger bubble in a pair
- 3:
-
Created bubble by coalescence
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. CMMI 15-63553) and the Continuous Casting Consortium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
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© 2018 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
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Yang, H., Vanka, S.P., Thomas, B.G. (2018). Modeling of Argon Gas Behavior in Continuous Casting of Steel. In: Nastac, L., Pericleous, K., Sabau, A., Zhang, L., Thomas, B. (eds) CFD Modeling and Simulation in Materials Processing 2018. TMS 2018. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72059-3_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72059-3_12
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