Experimental research on the flow instability and level fluctuation in continuous thin slab casting mould

Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China
e-mail: shen@tsinghua.edu.cn

Received: 1 July 2016
Accepted: 19 September 2016

Abstract

Full scale water modeling experiments is conducted to address the instability characteristic of fluid flow and its relationship with the level fluctuation in the continuous thin slab casting mould by using a particle image visualization method. The results show that the level fluctuation is coherently related to the fluid flow in mould and is induced by the instability of fluid flow. The characteristic parameters of the fluid flow in mould, such as the wave height, the circumfluence center position and the jet impinging depth vary with time. The circumfluence center position descends and the wave height decreases with descending jet impinging depth, and vice versa. Different characteristic parameters are periodical but with a similar period. The phase difference in the left and right side of mould centerline is half period for these parameters. For a moment, the flow pattern is asymmetrical, but the average values of characteristic parameters are almost same referring to the mould centerline. The probabilities of the jet impinge position and circumfluence center position are single peak distributions with their highest frequencies apart the average positions. The configuration of the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) affects the characteristic parameters of fluid flow but with the similar instability and periodicity.