Modeling of Induction Heating with A Computational Fluid Dynamics Package

Induction heating is a common techniques used to heat metals in the materials processing industry. The phenomenon is a surface heating effect - heating the surface of a material to melt metals. The material could be a crucible or chunks of metal itself. It is often necessary to troubleshoot or optimize a process that uses induction heating. Figure 1 below shows a typical setup for an induction skull melter (ISM). These crucibles are segmented copper sections with water or other fluids used as a cooling fluid. The coupling between the induction heating and the cooling fluid flow determines how much metal is melted, solidified into a "skull," and ultimately available for a casting operation.

This expert consultant developed a modeling technique as part of a commercial fluid dynamics package to allow a coupled analysis of the induction heating, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics by one unified software package.

Figure 1 - Typical Induction Heating Configuration

Figure 2 - Symmetry Section of Representative Axisymmetric Geometry (bottom of figure represents centerline, r=0, of geometry).

Figure 2 shows a simple geometry used to test the methodology. The coils are individually represented and the crucible is not considered to couple with the coils (segmented crucible). The heating will occur on the surface of the metal within the crucible.

Figure 3 - Typical Surface Heating Results for a Crucible.

Figure 3 shows the high heat generation rates near the surface of the melt region as shown above. The peak heating rate occurs on the surface of the melt at the top edge - the interface between the melt region and the zone defined as "inspace.".

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