Numerical Simulation of Mold Slag Entrapment Behavior in Nonoriented Silicon Steel Production Process

Abstract

This paper is based on the surface defects of casting billets in the production process of nonoriented silicon steel plates at a steel plant in North China. Taking the parameters of a slab mold in the nonoriented silicon steel production process as a prototype, the flow field characteristics of the mold under the same section, different drawing speed and immersion depth were systematically studied by using a LES (large eddy simulation) and VOF (volume of fluid) coupling algorithm. The results show that under the current conditions, when the critical slag entrapment speed increases from 1.0 m/min to 1.2 m/min, the nozzle insertion depth increases linearly with the critical slag entrapment speed, while when the nozzle insertion depth exceeds 130 mm, the increasing effect of further increasing the nozzle insertion depth on the critical slag entrapment speed begins to decrease. When the drawing speed of continuous casting is kept constant at 1.4 m/min, the abnormal fluctuation height of the steel slag interface is significantly improved when the angle of the water nozzle is increased from 15° to 20°, and the proportion of slag entrapment is also reduced from 0.376% to 0.015%. When the nozzle angle is 25°, the slag entrapment ratio is reduced to 0%, and the steel slag interface also ensures a certain activity. The numerical simulation results were applied to the industrial site, and the slag inclusion rate and crack rate of the billet in the continuous casting process of nonoriented silicon steel were obviously improved after the optimization process.