The Simulation of Thermal Field in Induction Melting with Cold-Crucible and Dual Frequencies

A study of thermal field in induction melting with cold crucible and dual induction frequencies is presented in this paper. Numerical simulation was done by finite element based software COMSOL with use of multi-physical modeling. A method of superposing of magnetic vector potential is proposed to solve the complexity of dual induction frequencies. Different conditions of high and low frequencies were given in the calculation to find the effects on distribution of thermal fields. The computed temperature distribution was compared with the macro etched section of solidified ingots and the results showed that the orientation of dendritic grain structures follow to the similar direction of heat flow. This indicates that proper set of induction coils could enable more uniform thermal field distribution and attaining controlled solidification morphology in the ingots.