Experimental modelling of the continuous casting process:The LIMMCAST-Program

There are only few and locally restricted measurement data existing about the flow in a continuous casting mould and the influence of a magnetic field on the steel flow therein. This is related to the extremely harsh environmental conditions and the opaqueness of the media in the real steel casting process, so that there is nearly no measurement technique applicable. To overcome this lack of knowledge, there were build two experimental facilities at the FZD, working with low melting point alloys. The Ultrasonic Doppler Velocimetry (UDV) can be used for flow monitoring in the mould at these models. The resulting experimental data will be very valuable for the validation of numerical simulations.
Mainly, the two experimental facilities will be presented in the paper. Additionally, first results will be shown, which were obtained at the small scale experiment. It is shown, that the flow structures, like the emerging jet flow from the submerged entry nozzle and the recirculation zones, can be adequately resolved with the UDV-technique. Further the influence of a DC-magnetic field in the function as a electro-magnetic brake was studied. One result was, that a DC-magnetic field may give rise to non-steady, non-isotropic large-scale flow perturbations.