On industrial continuous galvanising lines, slot air wiping jets are employed to control the thickness of the protective metallic coating applied to steel strip. As an outcome of Steel Research Hub I, we established and validated a 2-dimensional numerical coating model for predicting the coating thickness produced in this process for an operational valid range of process settings.
As part of Steel Research Hub II, this existing model will serve as the basis for development of a new 3-dimensional model to simulate the coating response to various wiping jet dynamics associated with different operational configurations of the wiping jets. Computational fluid dynamics modelling of the jet flow will also be undertaken in 3-dimensions for the jet flow impinging on the coating. This will serve as the wiping jet ínput to the 3-dimensional coating model. Expanding the numerical coating model into 3-dimensions is a significant and exciting step forward for the simulation activities aimed at identifying improved operational settings for the wiping jets enhancing uniformity of the coating. This research is a natural and logical progression building on from previous Steel Hub activities, but it is more than that. It represents a next-level research tool that will make possible investigation of the effects of the wiping jet flow on the coating in regions on the strip where significant multi-directional flow mixing of the wiping jets is known to occur in industrial practice.