Simulation of Flow Field under Asymmetric Casting Condition of Seven Strand Tundish

In the actual production process of a seven‐strand continuous casting machine at a steel plant, the edge strands are used to cast either 300 or 600 mm round blooms, while the central five strands cast 300 × 340 mm square blooms. In this study, both physical modeling and numerical simulation are employed to investigate the influence of different flow control device configurations on the flow field, temperature distribution, and inclusion removal behavior in the tundish, under two different edge strand casting conditions. Results show that the original tundish exhibited poor uniformity among outlets, with a maximum temperature difference of 14 K and dead zone volume fractions of 25.23% and 23.15%. After optimization, dead zone fractions decreased to 13.29% and 13.03%, while average residence times increased by 81 and 66 s, respectively. The consistency of response and peak times among strands 2 to 4 improved significantly, reaching up to 91.43%. The maximum temperature difference between outlets is reduced to below 1 K. Furthermore, the inclusion removal efficiency for particles larger than 60 μm exceeded 90%. The optimized tundish demonstrated a more balanced flow field, more uniform temperature distribution, and enhanced inclusion flotation and removal.