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The role of natural convection in ladles as affecting tundish temperature control in continuous casting

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Abstract

An approximate analysis is presented to describe the flow field in molten steel held in a ladle, as caused by natural convection. It is shown that a thick (say 8 to 14 in.) slag layer is required to suppress extensive vertical mixing within the ladle. It is also shown that natural convection caused by the contact of the metal with the cold ladle walls may produce mass flow rates of the order of 2 to 3 tons per min for typical 100 to 150 ton ladles. If ladles are tapped at comparable rates, then this pehnomenon can effectively prevent mixing in the bulk. The resultant stratification may be desirable in tundish temperature control.

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Abbreviations

C p :

specific heat

g :

acceleration due to gravity

h :

convective heat transfer coefficient

dH/dT s :

effective specific heat per unit volume, incorporating the latent heat release within the melting range

k :

thermal conductivity

k s, kM :

thermal conductivity of slag and metal, respectively

L :

length

T :

temperature

T s, TM :

slag and metal temperatures, respectively

T w :

wall temperature

t :

time

W :

mass flow rate of metal/unit width

Gr:

(y 3βg(Tb − Tw)ρ2/μ2) = Grashoff Number

Pr:

(C pμ/k) = Prandtl Number

Ra:

GrPr = Rayleigh Number

β :

coefficient of thermal expansion

ε :

emissivity

μ :

viscosity

υ :

kinematic viscosity

ρ :

density

σ :

Boltzmann’s constant

References

  1. J. Szekely and R. G. Lee:Trans. TMS-AIME, 1968, vol. 242, p. 961.

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  2. J. W. Hlinka and T. W. Miller: Temperature Loss in Liquid Steel-Refractory Systems, Iron and Steel Engineer, in press.

  3. S. Chandrasekar:Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability, Chapter 2, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1961.

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  4. Lord Rayleigh:Phil. Mag., 1916, vol. 32, p. 529.

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  5. E. M. Sparrow: Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University, 1956. (Fig. 2.2)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Process Metallurgy, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, N. Y.

    J. Szekely (Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director)

  2. State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, N. Y.

    J. H. Chen (Graduate Student)

Authors
  1. J. Szekely
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  2. J. H. Chen
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Szekely, J., Chen, J.H. The role of natural convection in ladles as affecting tundish temperature control in continuous casting. Metall Trans 2, 1189–1192 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02664251

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02664251

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