Electromagnetic-Thermal–Deformed-Fluid-Coupled Simulation for Levitation Melting of Titanium

A numerical simulation, considering the two-way interactions of the electromagnetic, thermal, and fluid fields with deformation associated during a levitation melting process, is performed using the finite-element method. Material properties dependent on temperature are applied for the simulation. In addition, surface-to-ambient radiation and phase change are considered, and the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation is employed to model the deformation of a metal sample during the melting process. The oscillations of the metal sample at different times are also simulated. The oscillations, melting time, deformation, and distributions of the electromagnetic-thermal-fluid fields are obtained at different moments. A general way to dynamically predict the melting process of induction heating and its performance evaluations are provided in this paper.