Numerical Simulation of Induction Stirred Ladle

M Pal
*1
, S Kholmatov and P Jnsson


1
Civil and Computational Engineering Centre-University of Wales, Swansea,
Division of metallurgy, Material Science and Engrineering, KTH
SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden
*Corresponding author: mayur@kth.se



Abstract: Induction ladle plays an important
role in a broad range of metal-processing
operations. The treatment of steel in the ladle is
as old as the use of ladles in steelmaking. The
main purpose for ladle treatment of hot metal
and liquid steel include desulphurization,
deoxidation, alloying, and inclusion shape
control. Over last few years efforts are made to
develop simulation models of induction ladle
[1]-
[8]
, in order to study heat transfer and fluid flow
in gas and induction stirred ladles. These models
provide more information about the industrial
processes used in ladle treatment of steel. In this
paper a simulation model of a laboratory scaled
induction ladle is presented. The simulation
model so developed will make it feasible to have
information about the fluid flow phenomenon
and thermal heat transfer.
In order to perform the numerical simulation of
the furnace, physical processes involved are
expressed as a coupled-nonlinear system of
partial differential equations arising from a
thermal-magneto-hydrodynamic problem. The
simulation model is formulated in a two-
dimensional domain. The equations of
electromagnetic model to describe magnetic
diffusion inside the ladle through magnetic
stirrer are expressed by well known system of
Maxwells equations. Moreover, the heat
equations governing the induction heating are
provided. The hydrodynamic model for fluid
flow in the molten metal is described by well-
known incompressible Navier-Stokes equation.
Numerical simulation are performed by solving
the coupled system of equations using the
commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics

application mode by combining
Electromagnetics, Fluid Dynamics and Heat
transfer modules.
Keywords: Induction ladle, induction heating,
electromagnetic forces, Maxwells equations,
Navier-Stokes equations.

1. Introduction

Electromagnetic stirring is widely used in ladle
metallurgy and continuous casting. The
application of the electromagnetic stirring
improves strand quality, increases metallic yield
and continuous caster productivity, and increase
production flexibility. Typically, such systems
consist of a mould, made out of nonmagnetic
material, which is surrounded by induction coils.
Upon passing an alternating current through
these coils, a fluctuating magnetic field is
generated, and a current is induced in the melt
contained in the crucible. The net result is
essentially two-fold: 1) the induced current gives
rise to Joule heating; 2) the interaction between
the magnetic field and the current gives rise to
electromagnetic force field, Lorentz force, which
is responsible for stirring.
Induction furnace systems are modeled by:
Maxwells equations for calculating induced
current, and electromagnetic force field;
Navier-Stokes equations to calculate
velocity field;
Differential thermal balance equation to
calculate the temperature field.
The study of these flows is called
magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), which is
concerned with the mutual interaction of fluid
flow and magnetic fields. The mutual interaction
of a magnetic field, B, and a velocity field, U,
arises partially as a consequence of Faraday, and
Ampre, and partially because of the Lorentz
force experienced by a current-carrying body. It
is convenient, although somewhat artificial, to
split the process into three parts
1


The relative movement of a conducting fluid
and a magnetic field causes as e.m.f. (of
order B x U ) to develop in accordance to
Faradays law of induction.
Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham
These induced currents must, according to
Ampres law, give rise to a second, induced
magnetic field. This adds to the original
magnetic field, and change is usually such
that the fluid appears to drag the magnetic
field lines along it.

The combined magnetic field (imposed plus
induced) interacts with the induced current
density, J, to give rise to Lorentz force (per
unit volume), J x B. This acts on the
conductor and is generally directed so as to
inhibit the relative movement of the
magnetic field and the fluid.

Previously a model of induction stirring using
straight stirrer (to explore the fluid flow
phenomenon inside the ladle) was presented in
[9]-[10]
. In this paper cylindrical stirrer
configuration is explored for fluid flow and
induction heating. In a cylindrical stirrer
combination of high and low frequency current
can be used for both induction heating and
stirring of the molten steel.

This paper is organized as follows: Section 2
gives a brief description of formulation of the
problem to be solved. In section 3 we summarize
the governing equations of the induction stirring
and fluid flow in the ladle. Next, in section 4,
details of the heat transfer process involved in
induction stirring and heating of the ladle are
presented. Section 5 presents the problem
formulation for simulation purpose with the
details of boundary conditions, mesh and solver
settings. Results and discussion are presented in
section 6. Conclusions follow in section 7.

2. Formulation of the Problem

In this research, a CFD model of the induction
stirred ladle is developed. At first,
electromagnetic Lorentz forces are calculated.
Secondly, the resulting flow field caused by the
Lorentz forces is calculated. The physical
orientation of the induction stirrer and the ladle
is shown in Figure 1. The induction coils inside
the stirrer produce a high frequency magnetic
field. This magnetic field induces currents on the
surface of the conductor whose distribution is
such as to shield the interior of the conductor
from the imposed field.


3. Governing Equations

3.1. Governing equations for Electromagnetic
Forces

The Ampre-Maxwells simplified equation for
magnetic field:

J B= (1)
Faradays law for induces electric field:

t

=
B
E (2)
H B = (3)

Ohms law and Lorentz forces due to interactions
of the electromagnetic field are given by:
( ) B U E J + = (4)
( ) B U E J + =
B J F = (5)

As a practical matter, in case of axi-symmetric
problem it is convenient to work in terms of the
vector potential A, because it has single
component, given as:

A B = (6)
and
t

=
A
E , (7)
with
0 = A (8)

It may be shown, moreover, that upon combining
the above definition with the Maxwell equations,
we obtain:
t
e m
= A A
2
, (9)
This equation is of the same form as the
diffusion equation. For Cylindrical symmetry,
which is appropriate to most furnace applications
and to the induction stirring of cylindrical billets,
Eq. (9) may be written in cylindrical coordinate
form as follows:

t r z r
r
r r
m

+ |

\
|

A A A A
2 2
2
1
(10)
Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham
A
x
i
s

o
f

S
y
m
e
t
r
y

I
n
d
u
c
t
i
o
n

C
o
i
l
s

With 0 = =
r z
A A

Upon using Eq. (6) we have:
( )
r
r
r
z

\
|
=

A
B
1
(11)
t
z

=

A
B (12)

Moreover, upon using Ohms law Eq. (4)
together with Eq. (7), we obtain:
t

A
J (13)
Now using the above Eq. (11)-(13), the two
components of the body force field i.e., the non-
zero terms of the ( ) J B product are then
given as:

r z
B J F

= (14)

z
B J F

= (15)







LADLE






Fig. 1 Axi-Symmetric Ladle Geometry used in
Simulation Model

3.2. Governing Equations of Fluid Flow

In general, steady fluid flow in a turbulent,
molten-metal system which is induction stirred,
may be represented by the following time-
smoothed, vectorial form of the Navier-Stokes
Eq. (4):




( )
B
F P V V + + = (16)

For parameters and designations, please see the
Nomenclature.
However, for cylindrical symmetry the equation
of motion can be written in the following form:
z
r
e
z
e
r
z
r
r
B J
z
u
z
ru
r r r
r
P
z
u
u
r
u
u

+
(
(
(
(

\
|

+
|

\
|

= |

\
|

) (
(17)
and,
r
z
e
z
e
z
z
z
r
B J
z
u
z
r
u
r
r r
z
P
z
u
u
r
u
u

(
(
(
(

\
|

+
|

\
|

= |

\
|

1
(18)
Upon introducing the vorticity,
r
u
z
u
z r

= , (19)
and the stream function,
z r
u
r

=
1
(20)
r r
u
z

=
1
(21)
The relation between , is given through

0
1 1
=
|

\
|

+
|

\
|

r r r z r z
(22)

Using Eq. (19)-(21) the equation of motion then
can be written as:
Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham

0 ) ( ) (
1
) (
) (
1
=
)
`

+
(

+
|

\
|

\
|

r z
e
e
B J
r
B J
z
r
z r z
r
r r r
z r r r r z

(23)

Where,
z
B J

and
r
B J

are the only remaining

terms of J x B for cylindrical symmetry. The
effective viscosity is defined as:
t e
+ = , (24)
Where
t
is the turbulent viscosity, which may
be evaluated by solving conservation equations
for turbulent kinetic energy and the frequency of
turbulent fluctuations. Further details about the
formulation can be found in the literature
[9]-[14]
.

4. Heat Transfer

Heat transfer is an important component of all
ladle metallurgy and injection systems. When
molten steel is held in a ladle, heat losses will
occur to the surroundings and in particular to the
ladle walls. In addition to a modest rate of heat
loss, this will also result in stratification of the
melt. When molten steel is being agitated in a
ladle by gas injection or induction stirring, the
rate of heat loss will be increased, particularly
because of radiative heat transfer from the free
surface. In many metallurgy operations, thermal
energy is added to the melt either by induction
or, more frequently through the electric arcs
[8]-
[10]
. In a induction ladle high frequency magnetic
field is used to agitate the melt and a low
frequency magnetic field is deployed for
induction heat thus induction heating and stirring
are can be carried out at the same time in a
induction stirred ladle.
Although in many practical situations all modes
of heat transfer occur together, we will consider
conduction, radiation, and convection separately.

4.1. Equations Governing the Heat Transfer

The law of heat conduction, also known as
Fouriers law, states that the time rate of heat
flow Q, through a slab is proportional to the
gradient of temperature difference:

x
k
t

T
A
Q
(25)

Here, k is known as the coefficient of thermal
conductivity. The negative is required to yield a
positive number for the heat flow.
Thermal radiation, natural phenomena known
as electromagnetic radiation, i.e. the broadcast-
ing of energy by subatomic transport processes,
is the process of heat transfer by which
equilibrium is achieved between two bodies
without a mutual contact. This can be excited by
the passage of an electric current-chemically, by
electron bombardment and thermally, as a simple
consequence of the temperature level of a body.
For a black body the total rate of radiant
emission per unit surface is given by

4
T W =
b
, (26)
in which
4 2 12
10 7 . 56 K m kW

= .
The transfer of heat through the motion induced
by the natural volume or density changes
associated with temperature differences in a fluid
is known as natural or free convection.
The rate of heat transfer per unit area of the
heated body, q, is proportional to the difference
in temperature between the hot body, T, and the
ambient flow, T
a
. If the constant of
proportionality is h, then we have:
( )
a
h q Q T T A A = =

(27)

Where h is heat transfer coefficient.

5. Modeling in the solver

The simulation model of the above described
metallurgical process is developed. To
incorporate induction stirring and heating in the
simulation model Electromagnetic, Fluid
Mechanics and Heat Transfer modules of the
solver are coupled
[15]
. The simulation is
performed using two-dimensional axi-symmetric
model as shown in Figure 1. The simulation
domain consists of a conducting Ladle domain
surrounded by induction coils. The coil and ladle
domain is enclosed in another domain where the
Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham
WTW
WBW
W
R
W
W
L
W
LTW
LBW
L
R
W
S
LADLE
C
O
I
L
CBW
boundary conditions were set as magnetic
insulation at the boundary of enclosing domain.
The details of the geometry used for modeling
and simulation in COMSOL Multiphysics

are
based on
[2]
. Physical properties of steel,
induction coil and medium used in simulation
can be found in the literature
[9], [13], and [14]
.




















Fig. 2 Wall BC used in Simulation Model
5.1. Assumptions and Boundary Conditions

The following assumptions are made in the
statement of the mathematical model of
induction-stirred ladle:
The calculations are performed using
transient solution mode and one time step.
No thermal radiation is considered for heat
transfer simulation

Accordingly, following wall boundary
conditions were used for the model (Figure 2):
1. The electromagnetic module:
Ladle domain is inactive;
WLW symmetry axis;
LTW no shear: velocity gradient is
zero;
LRW, LBW velocity component is zero

2. Induction heating:
WLW symmetry axis;
WBW, WTW, WRW specified
temperature T0;

5.2. Mesh setting for the 2D Axial-symmetric
model

The initialized mesh consists of 2315 mesh
elements and 4684 number of degrees of
freedom. Then a mesh refinement was applied on
the ladle in order to get better resolution of the
forces and the velocity inside the ladle. The
Figure 3 shows the mesh generated on the whole
domain. From this figure it can be seen that mesh
is made denser close to the ladle and the stirrer,
and is kept coarser at the boundary.



Fig. 3 Initialized Mesh over the 2D domain.

5.3. Solver settings

First the solution was obtained for the
electromagnetic module with the use of time-
harmonic, direct linear solver. In this way the
force fields were calculated and these force fields
were used as source terms to solve
incompressible Navier-stokes equation where
time-harmonic, non-linear iterative solver was
used. For heat transfer by conduction time-
dependent direct linear solver was used.

6. Results and Discussions

In this section we will present the results
obtained from the simulation model of the
induction stirred ladle. The results are presented
for 2D axial symmetry configuration of the ladle.
We will first present the results for the
distribution of the magnetic flux distribution
inside the ladle because of the induction coils.
Figure 4 shows the contours of the magnetic flux
density distribution.
Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham


Fig. 4 Magnetic Flux Density Contours


Fig.5 Magnetic Flux norm Plot

In Figure 5 surface plot of the magnetic flux
density is shown. It can be seen from the figure
that the flux density is maximum near the coil
and almost zero at the boundary of the enclosed
domain.


Fig.6 Induced Current density and Flux Streamlines
Induced current density inside the coil is shown
in Figure 5 along with the streamlines of the flux
inside the ladle. It can be clearly seen from the
figure that the induced current density is higher
at the surface of the ladle closer to the induction
coils.
Figure 7 shows the streamlines for the flow of
molten steel inside the ladle due to induction
stirring. The results are in close agreement with
the results presented in
[2]
.
The temperature distribution inside the ladle is
shown in Figure 8. The temperature is higher at
the surface closes to the inductor due to
induction heating and almost zero at the
enclosing domain boundary


Fig. 7 Close Streamlines Plot of
Flow inside the Ladle


Fig. 7 Surface Plot of Temperature
Distribution inside the Ladle

7. Conclusions

Two-dimensional axial-symmetric simulation
model of induction stirring is presented. The
model enables to study the fluid flow pattern
along with induction heating phenomenon in
Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham
case of cylindrical stirrer. It was observed that as
the ladle is brought closer to the stirrer the
induced current density inside the melt increases
thereby increasing the induced force field and
hence the velocity of the melt increases. These
results obtained from modeling of the ladle
refining process with the help of the solver
confirm the physics involved in this
phenomenon. The results also match with the
velocity profile of the melt calculated in
[2]
.
This also validates the solver model.

Nomenclature

Magnetic permeability
Density of the liquid melt
Electrical conductivity
k Thermal conductivity
h Heat transfer coefficient
B Magnetic flux density
E Electrical potential
F Volumetric Lorentz force
H Magnetic flux density
P Pressure, Pa
Q Heat flow

Q Heat flow rate

S
i
Source term in X
i
coordinate
U Velocity of the conductor in the
magnetic field
X
i
i-component of the coordinate system
U,V,W Axial, radial, and tangential velocity
components

References

1. J Szekely and K Nakanish: Stirring and its
Effect on Aluminum De-oxidation in the
ASEA-SKF Furnace, Part II, Mathematical
Representations of the Turbulent Flow Field
and of Tracer Dispersion. Metallurgical
Transaction, 1975, 6B, 245
2. J Szekely and C W Chang: Turbulent
electromagnetically driven flow in metals
processing: Part 2 practical applications,
Ironmaking and Steelmaking, 1977, No3,
196-204
3. J L Meyer, J Szekely and N EL-Kaddah: A
New Method for Computing
Electromagnetic Force Fields in Induction
Furnaces Trans, IEEE Transaction on
Magnetics, 1987, 23, 1806-1810
4. W-S Kim and J-K Yoon: Numerical Predic-
tion of Electromagnetically Driven Flow in
ASEA-SKF Ladle Refining Straight
Induction Stirrer, Ironmaking and Steel
1991, 6, 446-453
5. N S Saluja: PhD Thesis 1991, Electro-
magnetic stirring of Metallic Melts: Theory
and experiments, Department of Material
Science and Engineering, MIT-USA
6. L Jonsson: PhD Thesis, 1998, Department of
Material Science and Engineering, KTH -
Stockholm.
7. Y Sundberg: Lecture notes on Induction
Stirring. KTH-Library. 1971
8. J Alexis: PhD Thesis, 2000, Modeling of the
Ladle Furnace with Emphasis on
Electromagnetic Phenomenon, Department
of Material Science and Engineering, KTH-
Stockholm
9. M Pal: MSc Thesis, 2004, Mathematical
Modeling of Induction Stirred Ladle,
Department of Material Science and
Engineering, KTH-Stockholm
10. M Pal, R Eriksson, and P Jnsson: A CFD
model of a 20kg Induction stirred laboratory
scaled ladle, In Proceeding of FEMLAB

Conference Oct 2006-Stockholm, Sweden
11. J Szekely: Fluid Flow Phenomena in Metals
Processing, Academic Press Inc-US, 1979
12. J Szekely, G Carlsson, L Helle. Ladle Metal-
lurgy, Springer-Verlag NewYork Inc., 1989
13. J J Moore: The application of Electro-
magnetic Stirring in Continuous Casting of
Steel, Continuous Casting, Volume 3 ISS-
AIME, 1984
14. P A Davidson: An introduction to magneto-
hydrodynamics. Cambridge University
Press, 2001
15. COMSOL

3.2 User guide Chemical

Engineering, Electromagnetic Module and
Heat transfer module.


Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham