Numerical Simulation for Induction Refining Process of Metallurgical-Grade Silicon in Vacuum Furnace

The temperature and velocity distribution of melting pool fields is very important effect to the silicon purification in vacuum induction furnace.A numerical model for the electromagnetic-thermal-hydrodynamic coupling fields have been developed by using the f’mite element method(FEM)and a 2D numerical simulation for electromagnetic、temperature and velocity fields of metallurgical-grade silicon melting in vacuum induction furnace were performed with a software Multi-physics Comsol 3.5a in this paper.The results showed that the temperature field was dependent observably on input power of coils and induction heating times and the maximum temperature gradient in melting pool was 215K in holding time.With the silicon molted gradually a clockwise vortex was come into being for electromagnetic stirring in the smelting poor.The variation of velocity field in melting silicon is mainly influenced with the change of the current intensity and power frequency.The numerical predications of temperature distribution are in good agreement with experiments.