Methods and facilities for suppressing vortices arising in tundishes or ladles during their respective discharge
A method is provided for suppressing a vortex arising in a tundish or ladle at the lowering of the free surface of the melt below a critical level using a rotating magnetic field excited in the melt above an outflow pipe by an RMF inductor of a special design.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/609,697, filed Sep. 13, 2004, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates generally to vortex suppression in tundishes.
The lowering of the free surface of a melt occurring during the discharge of the melt from a tundish or ladle of a continuous casting plant (“CCP”) may create vortices in the replacement of the tundish or ladle immediately prior to the melt. This phenomenon typically occurs when the level of the melt is lower than normal. Such a low level may occur when the tundish is in the process of being emptied, for example. Slag floating on the melt surface is drawn into the vortex and gets into the mold of the continuous casting plant. Thus, a certain part of a continuous ingot contains slag inclusions and must be cut off and remelted later on. Cutting off the slag and remelting the slag increases production costs and decreases throughput.
Presently, an overwhelming majority of metals and alloys are cast on CCPs. Therefore, the problem of vortex suppression is highly urgent.
An attempt to solve this problem was made using ceramic boxes of rather complicated configuration mounted above the discharge hole (see, e.g., Sankaranarayanan et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,003, entitled “Flow Control Device For The Suppression of Vortices”). The drawbacks of such a method are obvious, and include the necessity of the washing out and the further destruction of ceramics by the melt after a long-term operation of the tundish. As a result, melt fed into the mold can become essentially irregular.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved methods of vortex suppression.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide improved methods of vortex suppression.
A proposed method of vortex suppression of the invention uses a rotating magnetic field (“RMF”). This method does not involve the arrangement of any ceramic components inside the tundish and therefore is free from the above-mentioned drawbacks. Moreover, the parameters of RMF are easy to change and, hence, the process of vortex suppression using RMF can be easily controlled within broad limits.
The proposed method of vortex suppression is confirmed by the results of experiments conducted on vortex suppression by RMF performed on a low-temperature tundish model, wherein, as a melt, eutectic indium-gallium-tin alloy (InGaSn) has been used with a melting temperature of approximately 10° Celsius.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method of suppressing a vortex arising in a tundish or ladle at the lowering of the free surface of a melt below a critical level using a rotating magnetic field continuously excited by m-phase current (i.e., any suitable number of current phases or m-phase voltage) in the melt above an outflow pipe, wherein the direction of RMF rotation is opposite to the direction of melt rotation in the vortex.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe above and other advantages of the invention will be more apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
In a tundish cover 1 (
If the EMBF field is directed against the rotating flow arising at a melt level lowering below the critical value for a given tundish (or ladle), vortex formation is efficiently suppressed.
Typically sinusoidal waveforms of current are generated in an inductor (e.g., inductor 6) of the type described herein such that RMF is excited above discharge hole 5. In accordance with an other embodiment of the invention, instead of typical sinusoidal waveforms, superwaves may be generated and applied to inductor 6 when its windings are connected to a power supply (not shown).
According to experimental results obtained on a low-temperature model, in some cases it is more efficient to apply frequency and/or amplitude modulated RMF or to change RMF rotation direction, intensity, or frequency with time.
Experimental results are shown in
The current in the coils of a 3-phase inductor (see, e.g.,
I=Io sin (ωot+α), (1)
where α is a temporal phase shift, and ωo is the circular frequency of the current (in the experiments, ωo=20 Hz). The delay +t varied from 0 to 2 seconds, Io varied from 8 A to 13 A. Apparently, the greatest effect is observed at the maximal current in the absence of delay. It is noteworthy that in this case, maximal disturbance of the metal surface in the tundish is observed.
In the case of modulated RMF, the current in the inductor coils varied according to the following law:
I=Io [1+e·sin (kωot+α)] sin (ωot+α), (2)
where k is the multiplicity ratio between the carrier frequency and the modulation frequency, and e is the modulation depth. Therefore, the notation K3—04—11A—+2s, for example, in
A facility realizing the proposed method constitutes explicit-pole inductor 6 (
The magnetic circuit of inductor 6 preferably consists of ferromagnetic back 11 with explicit poles 9, 12 (
Pole pieces 16 (
The inductor may preferably be fixed to tundish jacket 17 using flange 20, which may preferably be made of nonmagnetic steel rigidly connected with the poles of the magnetic circuit.
Various types of circuitries and devices made of various materials can be used to implement the pump as described above according to the invention.
It will be understood, therefore, that the foregoing is only illustrative of the principles of the invention, and that various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, and the present invention is limited only by the claims that follow.
Claims
1. A method of suppressing a vortex arising in a tundish or ladle at the lowering of the free surface of a melt below a critical level using a rotating magnetic field (RMF) continuously excited by 5 m-phase current in the melt above an outflow pipe, wherein the direction of RMF rotation is opposite to the direction of melt rotation in the vortex.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the direction of the RMF rotation is varied with a certain frequency and on-off time ratio.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the RMF is amplitude and/or frequency modulated, wherein a modulation frequency exceeds a carrier frequency.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the RMF is excited in a discontinuous manner with a certain on-off time ratio.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the RMF is excited with a certain delay after the onset of free melt surface lowering, depending on the stationary melt level and conditions of vortex formation.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the RMF intensity is varied during the melt discharge.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency of current exciting the RMF is varied during the melt discharge.
8. A facility realizing the method of any one of claims 1-7 constituting an explicit-pole inductor wherein the number of poles is a multiple to the number of current phases, comprising a magnetic circuit, windings, and pole pieces, which are mounted under the bottom of the tundish or ladle around the outflow pipe, wherein the magnetic circuit back is made of ferromagnetic material in the form of a flat disk with a central hole in which the outflow pipe is arranged, wherein the poles have a trapezoidal cross-section with windings which are perpendicular to the plane of the back, and wherein the pole pieces are air-cooled, made in the form of fragments of a hollow cone, and arranged in the lining of the bottom of the tundish or ladle around the discharge hole.
9. The facility according to claim 8, wherein the pole pieces of the inductor are made in the form of fragments of a hollow cylinder with a conical inner surface.
10. The facility of claim 8, wherein the magnetic circuit of the inductor is made of ferroceramics.
11. The facility of claim 8, wherein the magnetic circuit of the inductor is made in the form of a thin-wall jacket filled with iron powder consisting of electrically insulated particles.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 13, 2005
Publication Date: Jun 22, 2006
Inventors: Irving Dardik (Califon, NJ), Arkady Kapusta (Beer Sheva), Boris Mikhailovich (Beer Sheva), Ephim Golbraikh (Beer Sheva), Shaul Lesin (Meitar), Herman Branover (Omer), Michael Khavkin (Beer Sheva)
Application Number: 11/226,711
International Classification: C21C 7/00 (20060101);