NUMERICAL MODELING OF INTERNAL RADIATION AND SOLIDIFICATION IN SEMITRANSPARENT MELTS IN MAGNETIC FIELDS

Abstract

This article presents a numerical study on the effects of magnetic fields and internal radiation on the melt flow and solidification morphology during solidification processing of semitransparent oxide melts. The numerical solution of the integral differential equation characterizing the internal radiation and the magnetohydrodynamic equations describing the magnetic and transport phenomena is obtained by applying the combined discontinuous and continuous finite-element method. Deforming finite elements based on an arbitrary Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation are used to track the moving boundaries resulting from solidification. Computed results show that both internal radiation and external magnetic fields can have strong effects on the melt flow, temperature distribution, and solidification behavior during the melt processing of oxide materials.

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the above work by U.S. Air Force Grant VAN00138704451 and by NASA Grant NAG8-1693.