Free-Surface Dynamics in Induction Processing Applications

Abstract

Induction processing technology is widely applied in the metallurgical and crystal growth industry where conducting or semi-conducting material is involved. In many applications, alternating magnetic fields, which are used to generate heat and force, occur together with a free-surface flow. The numerical analysis of such three-dimensional, multi-physical phenomena on the industrial scale is still a big challenge. We present an overview of a novel multi-mesh model for addressing these kinds of coupled problems by means of computational simulations. It is based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM) of the software foam-extend (http://www.foam-extend.org)—an extended version of OpenFOAM$^{\textregistered }$ (Weller et al. in Computational Physics 12(6):620–631, 1998, [15]). Our development is motivated by the desire to investigate the so-called Ribbon Growth on Substrate (RGS) process. RGS is a crystallisation technique that allows for the production of silicon wafers and advanced metal silicide alloys Schönecker et al. (Solid State Phenomena 95-96:149-158 2004, [12]) with high volume manufacturing and outstanding material yield.