Abstract
In order to solve the problem caused by metal materials' inability to be cooled without contact with other materials after being heated by electromagnetic levitation, a new method is proposed: using a standing wave levitator to levitate the melted metal. The standing wave levitator adopts a concave spherical surface on the emitter and the reflector. Using ANSYS software, the transducer and the standing wave fields were simulated. Based on the simulation, the distribution and the maximum acoustic pressure with different radii of the concave spherical surface on the emitter and the reflector can be obtained, from which the optimal radius was determined. Based on the optimisation, a prototype of a standing wave levitation device was designed and manufactured. Levitation experiments for light and heavy specimens were carried out. It is shown that steel balls can be levitated stably when the distance between the emitter and the reflector is two times that of the wavelength. Next, the standing wave levitator was used in an attempt to levitate a steel ball of 5 mm in diameter after being non-contact heated by electromagnetic levitation. The results show that the method utilising a standing wave levitator to levitate and cool the metal materials after being non-contact heated by the electromagnetic levitation is feasible at this preliminary state.
Highlights
Outer space environments can provide experimental conditions for high vacuum, non-contact and microgravity testing, which is appropriate for material solidification to study various kinds of fluid phenomenon [1] and [2]
The principle of acoustic levitation is based on acoustic radiation pressure generated in a highly intense ultrasonic acoustic field, which produces a levitation force to overcome the suspended sample’s gravity
This paper proposes a new kind of method using a standing wave levitator to suspend the metal after heated by the electromagnetic levitation
Summary
Outer space environments can provide experimental conditions for high vacuum, non-contact and microgravity testing, which is appropriate for material solidification to study various kinds of fluid phenomenon [1] and [2]. This paper proposes a new kind of method using a standing wave levitator to suspend the metal after heated by the electromagnetic levitation. When the metal sample is levitated and heated by the electromagnetic coils, little or no force from the standing wave levitator is applied on the sample. When the power supply of the electromagnetic coils is turned off, the gravity of the metal is entirely overcome by the standing wave levitation force. In order to further optimise the acoustic levitator and increase the distance between emitter and reflector, the emitter and the reflector with different concave radii were analysed via ANSYS, and the pressures of the standing wave field under different parameters are compared in this paper. The standing wave levitator was used to suspend the metal materials after being non-contact heated by the electromagnetic coils
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