Flow Control During Solidification of AlSi-Alloys by Means of Tailored AC Magnetic Fields

This paper presents an experimental study which in a first stage is focused on obtaining quantitative information about the isothermal flow field exposed to various magnetic field configurations.Melt stirring has been realized by utilizing time-modulated AC magnetic fields in different variants.We consider time-modulated fields or combinations of traveling magnetic fields(TMF)and rotating magnetic fields(RMF).In a second step solidification experiments are carried out to verify the effect of a certain flow field on the solidification process.Our results demonstrate that the melt agitation using modulated magnetic fields offers a considerable potential for a well-aimed modification of casting properties by an effective control of the flow field.

Inertial Waves Occurring in a Liquid Metal Column due to Pulsed Excitation by a Rotating Magnetic Field

We present an experimental study concerning the flow inside a liquid metal column exposed to a pulsed rotating magnetic field.This paper is aimed at highly resolved,quantitative velocity measurements in the eutectic GalnSn alloy.A novel ultrasound Doppler system was used two measure two-dimensional velocity fields of the secondary flow in the radial-meridional plane.It employs an array of 25 transducer elements allowing a fast electronic traversing with concurrently high spatial and temporal resolution.The measurements revealed transient flow regimes showing distinct inertial oscillations and coherent vortex structures.The results demonstrate that the arising flow structure depends sensitively on the frequency of the RMF pulses.A maximum intensity of a periodic meridional flow can be observed,if the corresponding pulse frequency fp relates to the eigenperiod of the respective inertial mode in a developed regime.The electromagnetic stirring method that uses a modulated RMF offers considerable potential to enhance the stirring efficiency and to optimize the properties of castings by a well-aimed flow control during solidification.

An Experimental Study of a Bubble-Driven Liquid Metal Flow Under the Influence of a Rotating Magnetic Field

In this study we investigate the flow structure in a liquid metal cylinder while a bubble-driven flow is superposed with a rotating magnetic field(RMF).Argon gas is injected through a nozzle into a column of the eutectic alloy GalnSn. Without electromagnetic stirring the bubble plume in the centre region of the cylindrical vessel produces a recirculation with high velocities near the free surface while the fluid velocities in the bottom region remain rather low.The measurements revealed the potential of the RMF to control both the amplitude of the meridional flow and the bubble distribution and to provide an effective mixing in the whole fluid volume.Various periodic flow patterns were observed in a certain parameter range with respect to variations of the magnetic field strength and the gas flow rate.