Electromagnetic-Hydrodynamic coupling in the treatment of liquid metal

Abstract

Nowadays a lot of industrial processes based on magnetic induction are used in industry (see [1]) and in laboratory. The main feature of magnetic induction is that it can act at distance. Thermal or mechanical energy are given in the material without contacts. These effects divide the applications into two classes. In the first one, the thermal effect is used by the Joule effect. For example, we have induction furnaces for metal melting, treatment of surfaces by surface heating, quenching of pieces of metal, high speed welding (tubes making),… The second class of applications concerns only mechanical effect generated by the Lorentz Forces. For example, we have electromagnetic stirring, electromagnetic continuous casting for aluminium [5], continuous casting, guiding or confining jets of liquid metals [6], electromagnetic levitation, and so on…