Control of transport structures in a rotating liquid cylinder by means of an applied magnetic field

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Okano, Y.^{a; *} | Kondo, H.^a | Dost, S.^b

Affiliations: [a] Department of Materials Science & Chemical Engineering, Shizuoka University, Johoku 3-5-1, Hamamatsu 432-8561, Japan | [b] Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Y. Okano, Tel.: +81 53 478 1169; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Transport structures such as the convective flow and temperature field patterns in a rotating metallic liquid cylinder under a static magnetic field was numerically simulated. It was found that crucible rotation suppresses the natural convection in the vertical plane while it gives rise to uniform mixing in the horizontal plane. The natural convection in the liquid is enhanced at lower magnetic field levels while it is suppressed significantly at higher magnetic field levels. It also observed that the contribution of crucible rotation is diminished at higher magnetic field levels. Temperature distributions are not affected significantly by crucible rotation. The conclusion is that the combined effects of an applied magnetic field and a crucible rotation can be utilized to minimize undesirable radial segregations in grown crystals and obtain flatter melt/crystal interfaces in the melt crystal growth techniques such as the Vertical Gradient Freezing and Vertical Bridgman.

DOI: 10.3233/JAE-2003-285

Journal: International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 217-226, 2003