Dynamic Bath Mixing during an Ingot Casting Process

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a bath stirring investigation using a physical model for an uphill ingot casting process. A new method of mixing time measurement that overcomes the drawback of the conventional measurement method was developed. The method was used to investigate bath stirring for a dynamic-volume bulk bath in which the liquid volume increases over time during the teeming process. The results show that the new method can be successfully applied to reveal the relationship between gas blowing schemes, gas blowing flowrates, and bath depths. It is demonstrated that blowing bubbles causes the flow of the bath to increase when the bath depth is increased. By applying the new data analysis method, three different bottom blowing schemes were explored to study the mixing behaviors under different operating conditions. The results suggest that the concentric circular annulus is more favorable than both the eccentric blowing scheme and symmetrical scheme to achieve efficient mixing.