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Experimental and numerical study of the cold crucible melting process

Experimental and numerical study of the cold crucible melting process

Pericleous, Koulis A. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7426-9999, Bojarevics, Valdis ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7326-7748, Harding, R.A. and Wickins, M. (2003) Experimental and numerical study of the cold crucible melting process. In: Third International Conference on CFD in the Minerals and Process Industries CSIRO, 10-12 Dec 2003, Melbourne, Australia.

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Abstract

The cold crucible, or induction skull melting process as is otherwise known, has the potential to produce high purity melts of a range of difficult to melt materials, including Ti–Al and Ti6Al4V alloys for Aerospace, Ti–Ta and other biocompatible materials for surgical implants, silicon for photovoltaic and electronic applications, etc. A water cooled AC coil surrounds the crucible causing induction currents to melt the alloy and partially suspend it against gravity away from water-cooled surfaces.

Strong stirring takes place in the melt due to the induced electromagnetic Lorentz forces and very high temperatures are attainable under the right conditions (i.e., provided contact with water cooled walls is minimised). In a joint numerical and experimental research programme, various aspects of the design and operation of this process are investigated to increase our understanding of the physical mechanisms involved and to maximise process efficiency. A combination of FV and Spectral CFD techniques are used at Greenwich to tackle this problem numerically, with the experimental work taking place at Birmingham University. Results of this study, presented here, highlight the influence of turbulence and free surface behaviour on attained superheat and also discuss coil design variations and dual frequency options that may lead to winning crucible designs.

Item Type: Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Additional Information: Article published again in Applied Mathematical Modelling Volume 30, Issue 11, November 2006, Pages 1262-1280. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/968/
Uncontrolled Keywords: cold crucible, induction melting, spectral methods, titanium casting
Pre-2014 Departments: School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis > Computational Science & Engineering Group
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Department of Computer Systems Technology
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Department of Mathematical Sciences
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Last Modified: 27 Apr 2020 22:56
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/707

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