Flow in Metallurgical Reactors

Today, nearly 95% of crude steel is produced by continuous casting. Given the increasing demands relating to the quality of steel products, further optimization of the processes involved in continuous casting is required – for example, process improvements in metallurgical reactors like ladle, tundish and mould.

Meaningful experiments are difficult to perform in steel-making plants because of extreme boundary conditions, with temperatures up to 1600°C. Water modelling in full or reduced scale vessels has therefore been a popular means to physically simulate melt flows.

PIV measurements have been carried out on different Plexiglas models of metallurgical reactors: a ladle (scale 1:5.5), a tundish (scale 1:4) and a mould (scale 1:1).