Optimisation of baffles in six strand round bloom continuous casting tundish: a physical modelling study

Physical modelling using water in a one-third scale model was carried out to ascertain the influence of various types of baffles with inclined holes on the liquid flow in a six strand round bloom continuous casting tundish. To characterise the flow in the tundish, residence time distribution (RTD) curves were measured for different types of baffles with inclined holes. Because there is no well known analysis model to characterise the melt flow in multistrand tundishes, a new model was presented to analyse RTD curves and its reasonability was discussed. Furthermore, a new approach for quantifying the similarity among the strands was proposed and the baffle was optimised to improve the inclusion floatation and strand similarity in the tundish.