Modelling of liquid metal stirring induced by four counter-rotating permanent magnets

V. Dzelme¹ - M. Šċepanskis¹ - V. Geża¹ - A. Jakoviċs¹ - M. Sarma²

¹ Laboratory for Mathematical Modelling of Environmental and Technological Processes, University of Latvia, 25 Zellu street, Riga, LV-1002, Latvia }
² Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, P.O. Box 510119, 01314 Dresden, Germany

Abstract
In this work, the stirring of liquid gallium in a rectangular crucible induced by four counter-rotating permanent magnets is investigated numerically. The mean velocity and turbulence kinetic energy for different distances of the magnets from the vessel with liquid metal and the magnet rotation rate are investigated. The flow is modeled using two turbulence models - detached eddy simulation and k-ω shear stress transport - and compared with experimental results obtained using the dynamic neutron radiography method. Numerical results show qualitative agreement with experiment. The simulation results evidence that the applied turbulence models predict the velocity and the turbulence kinetic energy equally well. It is also shown that in this system the characteristic turbulence kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the characteristic velocity magnitude. Tables 2, Figs 7, Refs 15.