Research Progress on Application and Numerical Simulation of Electromagnetic Levitation Melting Metal Alloy

The rapid development of industrial manufacturing has put forward higher requirements for the quality and performance of multi-element alloys. However, it’s difficult to process high-purity, high-activity and high-melting alloys by conventional melting methods. Compared with traditional methods, electromagnetic levitation (EML), as a non-contact melting technology under microgravity conditions, can achieve substantial undercooling and rapid cooling for metal alloys solidifying, and can significantly change the crystal morphology, which can make the crystals develop to the alloy with excellent quality and performance. Therefore, EML technology for melting metal alloy has aroused great concern among researchers. Researchers have quantitatively measured the specific heat, density, viscosity, surface tension and other properties of multi-element alloys by EML technology. By observing the supercooled levitated molten droplets, combining the oscillating droplet method, the falling drop calorimetry method and the coupled electron method, the thermophysical properties over a wide temperature range can be measured. Studies have indicated that numerical modeling techniques are now used to simulate the flow phenomena and transport phenomena inside the molten droplet, which permits characterization of the flow as well as surface deformation of the droplet, and has facilitated revelation of the experimental results. According to a large number of studies of domestic and foreign researchers on the application and numerical simulation of electromagnetic levitation melting metal alloy, it can be found that: (i) refractory would inevitably pollute the liquid alloy in the alloy melting process; (ii) the undercooling and cooling rate have a great influence on the solidification process, but effective research methods are limited; (iii) the thermophysical properties affect greatly the macroscopic properties of the alloy, and can be used as input parameters for the simulation and optimization of the manufacturing process. However, there are few related publications. The paper summarizes research progress with respect to EML of molten alloys, including solidification phenomena and other property measurements as well as numerical simulation studies about flow phenomena and transport phenomena inside the molten droplet. Problems of EML melting technology and future breakthrough directions are discussed, which provides a reference for future research and numerical simulation of liquid alloy properties. © 2022 Cailiao Daobaoshe/ Materials Review. All rights reserved.