Turbulent stirring in an experimental induction furnace

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Abstract
This paper describes an experimental study of the electromagnetic stirring in a mercury induction furnace. The 200 mm-diameter furnace is supplied with a single-phase electric current of frequency 50–4700 Hz. The flow pattern is measured by means of a special two-wire probe, which tracks the thermal wake behind a hot-film probe. The magnitudes of fluctuating velocities are measured by hot-film anemometry. Attention is focused on the influence on the mean and turbulent motion of the electromagnetic-skin depth, which is determined by the supply frequency. The measurements of the mean motion show that, for a fixed magnetic field, stirring is maximum when the value of the skin depth normalized by the pool radius is about 0.2, in agreement with previous theoretical predictions. Two turbulence regimes may be distinguished for different frequency ranges. At low frequency the various properties of the turbulence, such as the mean-square fluctuations, the integral scales and the turbulent dissipation rate, are almost uniform over the whole bath. However, at high frequency the turbulence is non-uniform; there is an increase in the turbulent fluctuations and dissipation rate and a decrease of the integral scale within the electromagnetic-skin depth near the wall.