A Novel Approach to Reduce Tundish Open Eye Using Snorkel and the Corresponding Effect on Tundish Hydrodynamic Performance

The increasing demand for high-quality steel necessitates stringent control over melt cleanliness during secondary steelmaking, particularly in tundish operations where air ingression during ladle-to-tundish transfer remains a critical challenge. While inert gas shrouding prevents air ingression, it inadvertently displaces the tundish slag, creating an exposed “open eye” that compromises steel quality. This article proposes a novel approach to minimize tundish open eye (TOE) formation by incorporating a snorkel placed concentrically with the ladle shroud. Physical and numerical investigations were performed on 0.35-scale single-strand slab casting tundish equipped with flow modifiers and gas shrouding at gas-to-liquid loading ratios of 10, 20, and 30 pct. Numerical investigations were performed via ANSYS Fluent by coupling species transport and the volume-of-fluid method. Furthermore, water modeling experiments were performed to validate the simulations and to observe the size of the TOE formed with and without the incorporation of snorkel. The use of a snorkel effectively restricted the open eye within its boundary by confining the escaping gas within its enclosure. Furthermore, comparative analysis revealed that snorkel incorporation enhances hydrodynamic performance and reduces turbulence in the tundish.