Numerical Modeling of a Levitated Liquid in a Cold Crucible

Abstract: The cold crucible is a useful tool for the elaboration of high purity materials by electromagnetic fields. The application areas range from titanium parts elaboration for the aeronautic industry or the medical prosthesis to the silicon purification for photovoltaic industry. But even if this elaboration tool is used since a long time its main disadvantage is linked to its low energetic efficiency. Thanks to the progresses made in the recent years by the modeling tools, especially in 3D multiphysics like the finite elements solver Comsol which is used here, it is now possible to much better understand the phenomena involved in these cold crucible configurations and hence to optimize them in a next future. In this paper at first the main results of a 3D electromagnetic model of a cold crucible, already presented in a former paper, are briefly summarized. Then a 2D time-dependant electromagnetic-fluid mechanics coupled model with a deformed mesh technique (ALE method) is presented, showing the liquid charge shape in levitation state including the electromagnetic stirring. At last, first results of the extrapolation in 3D of the former model, which is currently in progress, are shown