Experimental Study of the Velocity of the Electrovortex Flow of In-Ga-Sn in Hemispherical Geometry

Igor Teplyakov,Dmitrii Vinogradov,Yury Ivochkin

doi:10.3390/met11111806

Abstract

The paper describes the application of the thermocorrelation method for measuring the velocity in a current-carrying liquid. An electrovortex flow occurs when the current passing through a conducting medium interacts with its own magnetic field. Measurements of the velocity of the turbulent electrovortex flow of the liquid metal (eutectic alloy In-Ga-Sn) were carried out in a hemispherical container in the range of currents of 100–450 amperes in the presence and absence of compensation of the Earth’s magnetic field. The efficiency of the thermocorrelation method in a current-carrying liquid has been demonstrated. The dependences of the axial velocity on the current and the velocity profiles along the axis were obtained. It was found that the presence of the Earth’s magnetic field leads to a significant decrease in the average value of the axial velocity in the entire range of currents.

Highlights

Due to the increased requirements for the energy efficiency of electrometallurgical plants, there is a steady trend towards an increase in their capacity
The presence of electrovortex flows (EVF), which are formed as a result of the interaction of an electric current passed through an electrically conductive liquid, with the intrinsic magnetic field (MF) of this current, leads to a radical restructuring of the hydrodynamic structure in the volume of the melting metal
All methods for measuring velocity in a liquid metals (LM) can be divided into several categories: probe and noncontact, methods that allow to measure average values or pulsation characteristics, and methods that measure average values in space or allow measurements in a small volume of finite size

Summary

Introduction

Due to the increased requirements for the energy efficiency of electrometallurgical plants, there is a steady trend towards an increase in their capacity. This is the first work where this method is used to measure velocity in a current-carrying fluid This problem, about the study of the hydrodynamic structure of the flow caused by the spreading of electric current from a point source into a hemispherical volume filled with liquid metal, occupies a special place among the model studies of EVF. This geometry of the working bath has a number of important practical advantages and features, which make it possible to study EVF in its most general form. Despite a significant number of studies of EVF, analytical [8], numerical [9], and experimental [10], many questions remain insufficiently studied, which is associated with both the complexity of the object itself and the laboriousness of the measurements

Mathematical Description of Processes

Discussion

Conclusions