Effect of Exit Shape of Submerged Entry Nozzle on Flow Field and Slag Entrainment in Continuous Casting Mold

In steel continuous casting with submerged entry nozzles at a domestic steel plant, nozzle clogging was largely alleviated and defect rates of hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets relating to slag entrainment were reduced for a nozzle with an approximately oval exit relative to a nozzle with a rectangular exit. Numerical and physical models were built to investigate the above phenomena. A turbulent model was applied in large eddy simulation to obtain the evolution of turbulent features within the nozzle and mold, while particle image velocimetry was adopted to monitor fluid flow beneath the slag–steel interface. Main results were that the flow speed of the main stream from the approximately oval exit was higher than that from the rectangular exit, while the zone of a velocity magnitude below 0.2 m/s within the approximately oval exit was smaller than that within the rectangular exit, indicating that inclusions tended to reside for longer in the latter. At the same casting speed, that slag entrainment occurred more frequently for the nozzle with a rectangular exit was found to have no direct relationship with the velocity magnitude and vorticity at 1/4 mold width on the top surface. Meanwhile, slag entrainment always occurred at the moment that vorticity changed most rapidly. The current study thus provided new insight into the structural parameter optimization of the submerged entry nozzle.