A Model for Coating Steel—Draining

Under Gravity

Graeme C. Hocking

1 Introduction

The process of galvanization of steel has been considered at several Maths-in-

Industry study groups to try to identify the reason for flaws in the coating (see
Hocking et al. 2010, 2016). The flaws included pitting on the surface and droplet
formation (which occur during thinner coatings and faster travel times) (Hocking
et al. 2010) and formation of “Bananas” of very poor quality coating that grow in
from the sides (for lower pressures from the air knife and for wider sheets) (Hocking
et al. 2016).
In the full industrial process, the sheet is first coated with aluminium, then heated
to a high temperature, before being passed through a bath of molten alloy at about
1–2 m/s. As the steel is drawn upward, a high velocity air jet, called an air knife, blows
off excess liquid which drains back into the bath (see Fig. 1). After this “stripping” of
excess fluid the sheet rises and cools in the air before a final stage of water cooling.
Baffles are sometimes employed at the sides of the sheet to direct the air from the
air knife, although in theory these would remove the two-dimensionality of the flow
and cause some inconsistencies near the edges, unless very carefully deployed. Tuck
(1983) and Hocking et al. (2010, 2011) derived and analysed the equations for the
problem of jet-stripping, and the results are summarized briefly in Sect. 3.
In this article, however, we consider the problem of draining under gravity, with
no air jet, making the assumption of unidirectional flow (Batchelor 1967). Some new
solutions are presented using perturbation techniques, and the results are discussed.

G. C. Hocking (B)
Mathematics and Statistics, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
e-mail: G.Hocking@murdoch.edu.au

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 1
R. McKibbin et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the Forum “Math-for-Industry” 2019,
Mathematics for Industry 36, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1154-5_1