Case Study: Steel Authority of India Limited achieves optimized tundish flow and improved steel quality with ANSYS Fluent

Analysis of flow-induced shear stress helps improve the lining life of steel ladles

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) faced the challenge of optimizing molten-steel flow in tundishes—specifically determining the best shape and placement of flow-control devices like turbo-stoppers—to improve inclusion floatation, residence time distribution and overall product quality. To tackle this, SAIL worked with ANSYS using ANSYS Fluent to model and analyze tundish flow behavior and turbulence effects.

ANSYS implemented a simulation solution using Fluent with the standard k-ε turbulence model, adaptive meshing (refined to about a quarter of a million cells where velocity gradients were high), unsteady species transport for residence time distribution, and the discrete phase model to track inclusions. The ANSYS analyses delivered clear flow visualizations, quantified turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation, enabled design improvements that preserve steel quality, sped up setup/post-processing, and reduced the need for costly plant-scale experiments—helping SAIL make measurable, cost-saving design changes.

Steel Authority of India Limited

Rajeev Kumar Singh

Process Simulation & Modeling Lab, RDCIS