The Effects of Nozzle Inclination, Area Ratio, and Side-Hole Aspect Ratio on the Flow Behavior in Mold

Abstract

During the steel continuous casting, the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) plays a crucial role in the fluid characteristic of fluid steel, which further affects the slab quality. In this paper, a nozzle model is developed to study the influences of nozzle inclination, nozzle area ratio, and side hole aspect ratio on the fluid characteristic of fluid steel. The results show that when the nozzle angle increased from 10° to 20°, the impact points of the narrow surface were 0.402 m, 0.476 m, and 0.554 m away from the meniscus, respectively. In addition, when the nozzle area ratio increased from 0.96 to 1.16, it resulted in a significant decrease of the speed of high-temperature liquid steel flowing out of the nozzle. Moreover, when the side-hole aspect ratio was 1.47, the maximum turbulent kinetic energy of the free surface reached 0.00141 m2 s−2. Furthermore, when the aspect ratio was 1.67 and 1.84, a slight difference existed, and the maximum turbulent kinetic energy was almost 0.00095 m2 s−2. The proposed model can provide theoretical basis and guidance for nozzle optimization.