Abstract
Levitation melting is one of the unique techniques in containerless melting experiments and solidification of materials for processing under high magnetic fields. In recent years this technique has spread to other research areas of metallurgy and it is currently used in applications like alloy preparation, metal purification and grain refinement.
Usually, levitation melting is achieved by using coaxial two-section coils. The bottom and the upper sections carry currents in opposite directions. Different apparatus coil configurations and electrical parameters, like current frequency and amplitude, have a direct effect on the free surface shape of the molten charge. It is crucial to know the final molten metal shape, as a prediction tool of levitation melting success, during design procedure. By means of developed iterative model, the equilibrium shape of levitated molten metal is found. This model takes into considerations a balance of hydrostatic, surface tension and magnetic pressures at the metal interface.
The predicted shapes of the metal droplet as well as its position inside the inductor are correlate with that of the experimental data.