Flow Field, Temperature Field, and Inclusion Removal in a New Induction Heating Tundish with Bent Channels

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is generally well structured and aimed at showing the benefits of a newly-designed Induction Heating Tundish With Bent Channels. In practice, the main result is the identification of the best operating and layout design as a compromise among the need of having a proper thermal distribution at tundish and the improvement of inclusion floatation. The modelling work can have higher scientific soundness if the 'compromise' results are generalised (e.g, tundish heating and channel size in function of flow rate), otherwise is a tailored optimisation and represents more likely a problem-solving demo.

Concerning the discussion of the numerical method, it seems not adequate the complete remind to the reader to an other paper for some issues, especially the way to simulate how the inclusions are 'removed' (Coalescence and stick to the walls? Trapping at surface?). Note that this reference paper (and the related information) is not immediately available on the net. Moreover, the 'cumulative' hystogram should reflect the 'real' distribution which shows a peak on the 'smaller' inclusions (less than 10 micrometers diameter) for which it is not clear the floatation mechanism. Moreover: the effect of thermal stratification should be also included the the flow the inclusion moves through. Please clarify.

Minor technical and editing errors:

row 24) the low superheat is known since a long time - not recent years - to be beneficial for steel quality (favours equiaxic steel grain growth),

47) and 52) Joule heating (capital J),

78) dimensions,

146) model validation: not clear or missing conditions the validation is performed on,

161) ... streams flow ...

164) instead of 'the liquid steel will impact the front wall of the discharging chamber strong', 'the liquid steel will impact  strongly the front wall of the discharging chamber'

166) ...the two molten steel streams converge ...

168) ...the inclusions collision-growth phenomena ...

Thank you for the paper.

Author Response

Thank you for your careful work. The Response Letter had been provided as a PDF file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript brings interesting scientific knowledge. It is made in sufficient scientific quality. The manuscript contains minor errors and typing errors. It can be recommended to be published after mandatory revision of errors (see attachment and below).

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1) The text contains minor errors.

2) Enlarge Fig. 3, 10, 11, 13 and 14.

3) In Table 1 and 2, mention the notice about the characteristics of individual parameters.

4) Complete Fig. 4, 7, 11 and 13 with the scheme of the cross section to the tundish.

5) Make Fig. 9 and 15 in colour.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thank you for your careful work. The Response Letter had been provided as a PDF file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

line 53: 'mathematical models'

line 110 ff: eq. 12 and 13 show a volume on the left side. The right side is a time (eq. 12). In case you use dimensional volumes or times this should be adequately mentioned and shown.

line 112:

- add the definition of the 'C-curve'

- you use 'Q' here as a flow rate. In eq. 15 'Q' is the joule heat. There shouldn't be the same character for different meanings in one paper.

line 138: 'DPM (Discrete Particel Method)'

line 151: Fig. 2 give additional information on the point where the temperature is referring to.

line 160: 'steel streams flow out'

line 166: 'molten steel streams'

line 176: Fig. 3:

- add information on the position of the shown cross sections

- 'with channels of 4 m radius', etc.

line 186: according to your figures I would say 'no more than 6 K'

line 190/191: 'the outlet temperature increases at first and then decreases...' - give a 'Why?'

line 196: Fig. 4: add information on the position of the shown cross sections

line 208: 'more efficient'

line 220/221: 'As shown in Figure 8, ...the turbulence intensities ... are larger than ...'. Improve figure 8 to show this clearer. in the moment it is not really obvious.

Fig.7/Fig. 8: add information on the position of the shown cross sections

line 260/261: sentence 'With the heating power of 1000 kW ...' - Improve figure 10 to show this clearer. in the moment it is not really obvious.

line 270: 'what do you define as a 'uniform temperature field'

line 281: give a better definition of 'better flow characteristics'

Fig. 11/Fig. 13: add information on the position of the shown cross sections

line 284: 'efficient'

Fig. 12: the colours for '600 kW' and '1000 kW' are very similar. Choose different ones.

Author Response

Thank you for your careful work. The Response Letter had been provided as a PDF file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf