Liquid metal experiments with swirling flow submerged entry nozzle

Abstract

The influence of a swirling flow inside the submerged entry nozzle on the structure and the stability of a liquid metal flow in a physical model of a slab casting mould are investigated. For visualisation of the flow, contactless inductive flow tomography (CIFT) is applied. As expected and desired, the swirling flow leads to a stronger upward fluid motion along the walls. At the same time, however, the oscillatory character of the flow becomes stronger. These flow features obtained with CIFT are shown to be in reasonable agreement with independent measurements using ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry. Preliminary results of numerical simulations also show a similar behaviour.