Applied MHD at Forschungszentrum Rossendorf – a review of R&D activities on tailored magnetic fields and liquid metal measuring techniques

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, allowing to develop tailored magnetic field systems. Various examples will be presented ranging from crystal growth, aluminum investment casting, thermoelectric effects, melt mixing, metal fiber production, electromagnetic levitation, to metal solidification. In many cases, only a special combination of AC and DC magnetic fields provides an optimal solution for the desired melt flow control.