Activities on applied MHD at Forschungszentrum Rossendorf

Magnetic fields provide an attractive contact-less influence on the motion of metallic or semiconductor melts and the related heat and mass transfer. An optimal design of the magnetic field is often difficult due to the lack of experimental access to the velocity field in such opaque melts. Several recently developed measuring techniques will be presented which allow an almost complete velocity resolution in metallic melts up to temperatures of about 400C. On this basis a combination of cold liquid metal model experiments with numerical simulations represents a powerful approach. Various examples will be presented ranging from crystal growth, aluminum investment casting to liquid metal two-phase flows. For the electromagnetic levitation process results will be given on sample instabilities and active means for stabilization as well as the flow field inside a molten sample.