Quantitative Characterization of Flow-Induced Erosion of Tundish Refractory Lining via Water Model Experiment and Numerical Simulation

A water model experiment and a transient 3D numerical model were designed and implemented to quantitatively evaluate the flow-induced erosion behavior of the refractory lining in a continuous casting tundish. A relationship between the erosion rate and flow characteristic parameters was proposed and experimentally verified. Boric acid tablets were used in the water model experiment to determine the flow-induced erosion rate, and the numerical model defined the two-phase flow pattern. The results indicate that the impacting and rubbing effects caused by the fluid flow can be quantitatively characterized by the turbulent kinetic energy and wall shear stress. The proposed empirical dependence describes the erosion rate of the boric acid tablet with acceptable accuracy. The most serious erosion occurs inside the turbulence inhibitor, and the erosion rate sharply drops and steadily reduces with the water flow outside the turbulence inhibitor. The influence of casting speed on the refractory erosion rate is also quantitatively analyzed using the developed model with the introduction of the proposed correction.