Energy modes of a three-section inductor for heating aluminum

Abstract

The article proposes a method for single-phase power supply of a three-section induction heater for aluminum ingots before extrusion. The solution allows you to flexibly control the heating mode of each section. The peculiarity of the synthesized mode is to increase the uniformity of heating the methodical load at the joints of the sections when replacing the three-phase winding circuit with a single-phase one. Changing the circuitry reduces the phase shifts of currents in adjacent sections. Uneven power distribution between the coils is proposed to be realized by local resonances in the windings. The resulting power factor of the inductor, close to unity, is provided by a common capacitor bank. The set of established modes of an induction heater was investigated using a simulation system built on the basis of a hybrid analysis. The numerical experiment was carried out in a specialized software environment based on a macromodel created using controlled sources. The achieved positive result from the modification of the device is evaluated by comparing the vector diagrams of the operating parameters for the initial and corrected states.