Experimental analysis demonstrates how gas blowing enhances fluid flow and reduces dead zones in a tundish, improving inclusion removal.
The tundish plays a key role in the metallurgical process. It helps remove non-metallic inclusions and improves the flow and mixing of molten steel. In this study, a sidewall gas blowing method is proposed. Gas is injected from the outlet sidewall of the tundish. The effect on fluid flow structure and tracer dispersion is investigated by water model and Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation. Experimental results show that, for bare tundish schemes, the flow field features a typical horseshoe vortex. A strong short-circuit flow forms near the bottom. A low-velocity dead zone appears above the outlet, which may hinder inclusion removal. With sidewall gas injection, the flow field is significantly improved. The bottom short-circuit flow is suppressed. Multiple large vortices are formed in the right region. In particular, the gas injection promotes upward fluid flow. Residence Time Distribution curve analysis confirms the improvement. The tracer outflow is delayed by 12 s. Peak concentration is reduced by 53.13%. The average residence time increases by 80 s. The dead zone volume is reduced by 31.9%. The active flow region is expanded. Overall, sidewall gas blowing enhances flow field performance.
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Wang et al. (2025) studied this question.