Flow Oscillations and Meniscus Fluctuations in a Funnel-Type Water Mold Model

Abstract

Transient flows in a funnel-type continuous casting process model were studied experimentally to investigate the flow oscillations inside the mold and the meniscus fluctuations. A full-scale water model was used with dimensions of 2000 mm (length) 9 1350 mm (width) 9 100 mm (thickness). Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was employed to measure the flow oscillations. To minimize high shear flow errors near the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) exit, the window deformation technique was adopted. The meniscus levels were extracted by edge-detection image processing. Three types of SEN and two funnel thicknesses (180 mm and 220 mm) were tested to examine the flow characteristics under five flow rates (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 m(3)/h). The vortex generation mechanism inside the mold was analyzed across the various mold conditions studied.