A NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE COATING THICKNESS IN CONTINUOUS HOT-DIP GALVANIZING

To control the coating thickness of zinc in the process of continuous hot-dip galvanizing, it is known from early days that the gas wiping through an air knife system is the most effective because of the obtainable of uniformity of coating thickness, possibility of thin coating, working ability in high speed and simplicity of control. But, the gas wiping using in the galvanizing process brings about a problem of splashing from the strip edge for a certain high speed of coating. Also, it is known that the problem of splashing directly depends upon the galvanizing speed and nozzle stagnation pressure. In theses connections, in the present study, we proposed two kinds of air knife systems having the same expansion rate of nozzle, and the jet structures and coating thicknesses from a conventional and new proposed nozzles are compared. In numerical analysis, the governing equations consisted of two-dimensional time dependent Navier-Stokes equations, standard k-e turbulence model to solve turbulence stress and so on are employed. As a result, it is found that it had better to use the constant rate nozzle from the point view of the energy saving to obtain the same coating thickness. Also, to enhance the cutting ability at the strip, it is advisable to use an air knife with the constant expansion rate nozzle.