Numerical Simulation of the Flow and the Solid Transport When Tilting a Holding Furnace

This study deals with the flows and the transport of solid inclusions in an aluminum holding furnace. A numerical model was developed that solved the governing equations for both the velocity and temperature fields and computed particle trajectories. This numerical model was used to simulate two flow situations: a holding flow and a pouring flow. In the first flow situation, the thermal conductivity was kept constant and special attention was paid to the thermal boundary conditions. The computed flow was strongly stratified and produced two contrarotating vortices. The second flow situation was a pouring flow in a 1/10 scaled water model of a real aluminum furnace. The calculation was done in a reference frame tilting with the vessel. Calculated velocities at the free surface of this pouring flow compared satisfactorily with experimental results. Finally, the trajectory of a solid particle in this transient pouring flow was calculated. This calculation was performed several times for various particle sizes and initial positions to determine the potential areas for inclusion settling or draining.