Open Access Conference Proceedings

Hydrodynamic conditions in the tundish play a crucial role in ensuring the quality of liquid steel and the effectiveness of refining processes during continuous casting. The present study focuses on the numerical comparison of flow characteristics in a four-strand tundish under various geometric configurations of impact pads and positional deviations of the ladle shroud. The calculations were performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in Ansys Fluent, employing the realizable k-ε turbulence model and particle tracking methods to determine residence time distributions. Simulated setups included impact pads of the Spherical K4 type and a standard impact pad, with modifications to their geometry and positional deviations of the ladle shroud from the reference axis. The analysis demonstrated that the standard impact pad results in longer residence times, enhancing the homogenization of liquid steel, however, this benefit is counterbalanced by the development of more dominant piston-type flow and a higher tendency toward red eye formation under misaligned shroud conditions. In contrast, configurations incorporating the Spherical K4 pad demonstrated a more uniform velocity field and higher flow stability under varying ladle shroud positions. These findings highlight the importance of impact pad design in maintaining stable flow behavior, particularly under non-ideal ladle shroud alignment, minimizing uneven refractory wear, mainly in the slag line region near the ladle shroud, and reducing dead flow zones.

Keywords: CFD simulation, tundish, spherical impact pad, ladle shroud misalignment, steel flow

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