Original Article

Influence of asymmetric flow rate ratio of dual ladle shrouds on flow, heat transfer, and inclusion transport in a billet continuous casting tundish with seven-strand

¹ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China
² WISDRI CCTEC Engineering Co., Ltd., Wuhan 430076, Hubei, PR China

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
^** e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 27 May 2026
Accepted: 11 June 2026

Abstract

To investigate the metallurgical effects of inlet flow rate distribution between two ladle shrouds in a seven-strand tundish, this study adopts combined physical and numerical methods to systematically analyze the flow field, residence time distribution, temperature field, inclusion removal and slag eye behavior under different inlet flow ratios. The results show that as the inlet flow ratio r increases from 0.6 to 1.0, the asymmetry of the internal flow field gradually weakens and the consistency of outlet flow improves, while the overall metallurgical performance does not change monotonically. The flow uniformity and directional transport capacity achieve a good balance when r ranges from 0.8 to 0.9. A higher flow ratio also improves temperature uniformity, reducing the maximum temperature difference at outlets from 0.7 K to 0.5 K. Inclusion removal efficiency is mainly determined by particle size, and the inlet flow ratio exerts a more obvious influence on fine inclusions. Furthermore, the slag eye area varies non-monotonically with r and reaches the minimum value at r = 0.8. A comparison of different casting speeds further reveals that a casting speed of 2.65 m/min is more conducive to extending fluid residence time and enhancing the flotation removal of medium and large inclusions.