2566
6 , NOVEMBER 1983
NUMERICAL SOLUTION METHODS FOR ELECTROHEAT PROBLEMS
Abstract. This paper reviews the use of numerical methods in simulat-
ing and solving problems that arise in the electroheat industry. Particu-
lar attention is given to the coupled electrothermal and induction stir-
ring problems that are typical of this industry. Following a brief review
of thenature of electrothermalproblems, the FiniteDifference,
Volume Integral Equation and Finite Element simulation techniques are
critically examined. It is shown that each technique has a definite role
andeach is illustrated with practical examples. A brief discussion of
unsolved problems is presented.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to review the application of numerical
simulationtechniquesto the analysisanddesign of industrialelec-
troheat equipment. By electroheat is meant the use of electrical energy
to heat, melt or otherwise process electrically conducting materials such
asmetals, ores, electrolytesandsemiconductors. The applicationscan
range from conventional induction heating and melting equipment on
through slag resistance furnaces (smelting), aluminum reduction cells,
continuous castingequipment(for ferrous and nonferrousmetals),
openarcscrapmeltingfurnacesetc. Attention will be specifically
focussedinthis paper onthoseapplications in which electromagnetic
fields interact directly with the conducting material to produce heating,
stirring or confinement.Excludedfromconsideration will bethose
applications in which electrical energy is used indirectly such as in resis-
tance furnaces where the heat transfer is via radiation.
This paper will use induction heating and melting applications to
illustrate many of the issues and concerns that arise in solution of elec-
troheatproblems.However,thediscussion will notbelimitedstrictly
to that application area.
Before discussing the application of specific numerical techniques,
several general aspects of the electroheat industry will be reviewed. It
is felt that these aspects are important insofar as they dictate the role of
numerical simulation in this industry. It will be shown that while Finite
Differences,FiniteElementsandIntegralEquations all are actively
usedtoday, the former two are probably predominantincaseswhere
coupledproblemsare to besolved. The attractivefeatures of each
method will be reviewed with specific reference to particular applica-
tions. Finally, several of the interesting and unsolved problems in this
industry will bediscussed.Despite thetremendous researchinterest
today in three-dimensional electromagnetic field problems, the predom-
inant need in the electroheat industry is for efficient means of postulat-
ing and solvingcoupled sets of partial differentialequationsin two
dimensions.
BACKGROUND AND NATURE OF ELECTROHEAT PROBLEMS
For the purposes of this discussion, attention will be focussed on
inductionheatingandmeltingapplications.Thisapplicationarea is
sufficiently broad that it encompasses most of the issues and concerns
that arise in general electroheat problems.
Byway of background, induction heating and melting equipment
has been designed, built and successfully operated since the mid-1920’s.
By the late 1960’s, equipment having quite impressive ratings had been
commissioned.Forexample,severallinefrequencycrucibleinduction
furnaces rated at 21 MW and 60 ton capacity had been installed [11 and
designs had been developed for a 100 ton unit. In another instance, a
total of 210 MW of induction heating capacity was installed at McLouth
SteelCorp., Trenton, Mich.in1968[2]. In the case of McLouth, the
systemconsisted of sixheatinglines,each with a capacity of 97 t/h.
Each line consisted of three heaters designed to raise the temperature
of steel slabs (300 mm thick by 1500 mm wide by 8000 mm long) pro-
gressivelyfromroom to rollingtemperaturein54minutes. The first
The a u t h o r i s w i t h t h e D e p a r t m e n t of E l e c t r i c a l
E n g i n e e r i n g ,U n i v e r s i t y of Toronto,Toronto,Canada.
0018-9464/83/1100-2566$01.00
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. MAG-19, NO.
J.D. Lavers
coil in each line had a peak power rating of 20 MW at 2700 V; the rat-
ings of the second and third coils were 10 MW at 2400 V and 5 MW at
1685 V, respectively. In other areas of electroheat, very large open and
submerged electric arc furnaces have been designed and built; one such
open arc furnace was rated at 400 ton capacity and was powered at 100
MW at the furnace transformer [31.
Given that these furnaceshavebeen available since the late
1960’s and that they have run successful^, it is interesting to note that
the firstsuchunitsweredesignedwithout the aid of sophisticated
numericalsimulations. In general,verysimpledesignmodelscoupled
withempiricalandexperimentaldatawereused. This approachto
designremainsgenerally true eventoday. Broad segments of the
industryhavetended to bequiteconservativeabout the adoption of
numericalsimulationtechniques primarily because the simplemodels
have worked so well in most instances.
Nevertheless,during the past 10-12years, the variousmanufac-
turers of electroheat equipment have begun to use numerical simula-
tions to aid in the design and development process. However, in view
of the success of the simpledesignmodels, itis possible to identify
several attributes that a good simulation andlor numericaltechnique
must possess for application in this field:
Relative ease of use. Manufacturers of this equipment do not gen-
erally maintain large R&D groups and most are certainly unlikely
tohaveon staff a numericalanalysist. If simulations are tobe
developed, the development will likely be via outside personnel. A
critical constraintin the development of suchsimulations is that
the end users will besales,productionanddesignenginers who
will not befamiliarwithmodernnumericalanalysis.Experience
has shown that they are unlikely to use any package that requires
more than a few inputparameters or one for which there is a steep ,
learning curve.
Fit on moderately sized machines. Surprisingthoughit may seem,
many manufacturers of electroheatequipmenthave only acquired
in-housecomputational capability within the fairly recent past.
Furthermore, the facilities are generally moderately sized minicom-
putersthat are notexclusivelydedicatedtorunningengineering
problems. Consequently, any simulation developed for this market
must fit comfortably on such machines and must yield design infor-
mation in a ’runtime’that is reasonable.CADsoftwarerunning
on dedicated processors would likely have a difficult entry to this
market.
Yield useful design data. Altogether too often, algorithms and simu-
lationsthatare well designedfrom a numericalpoint of view
requireasinput the preciseinformationthat the designengineer
requires as output. For example, the eddy current distribution in a
body havingconstantandknownmaterialproperties, a defined
geometryand a specified excitation (Le. so muchcurrent in so
many turns of a coil of fixed length and diameter) is a relatively
straight-forwardcomputationalproblem.However,inelectroheat
problems, the material properties are not constant but depend on
the heating history of the body and the engineer wants to know the
number of ampere turns, the coil diameter, the coil length, etc.
Maintain Jlexibiliw. Simulation packages developed for this industry
inparticularshould be sufficiently modular that new geometries
can be analysed with minimum cost in time and effort. If numeri-
cal techniques are to be used to examine a particular problem, then
meaningfulanswersshould be availablein at least the same time
and cost frame as would be the case were an experimental approach
used.
Aside from these general considerations, the most obvious charac-
teristic of electroheat problems is that they involve the numerical solu-
tion of coupled sets of partial differential equations. The equations can
be either loosely or tightly coupled.Forexample, a problem of con-
tinuing interest is the prediction of turbulent stirring velocities due to
the presence of electromagnetic forces in a melt. In most instances for
this class of problem, the electromagnetic and flow equations are only
0 1983 IEEE
 2567

weakly coupled via a motional emf. On the other hand, in virtually all berg. There hasbeen no practical needto use B-H models more
instances of eddy current heating, the coupling between the electromag- sophisticated than piece-wise linear. Furthermore, the use of an ac per-
netic and heat transfer equations cannot be avoided. At any instant of meability has proven to be perfectly satisfactory.
time, the electromagneticfielddistributiondepends explicitly on the
past thermal history of the body, as dictated by the heat transfer equa- This solution is an example of a good engineering simulation in
tion. These problems cannot be decoupled. that with relatively simple models some induction heating applications
(throughheating) are representedalmostexactlywhile the essential
FINITE DIFFERENCE SOLUTIONS features of others (billet heating) are represented to a good approxima-
tionFurthermore, through the use of appropriatetransformations,
Today, Finite Differences, Integtal Equations and Finite Elements cross sections other thancircular can be approximated.
Figure1
are all usedin the numericalsimulation of problemsrelated to elec- represents the temperature rise (surface, average and core) in a typical
troheatandeachtechnique has it'sparticularadvantages. The first of multi-stagethrough heater for 7.5 cmdiameterferromagneticbillets.
the techniques to be widely applied to electroheat problems was Finite This simulation is sufficiently simple that
it will run easily and
Differencesand the method is stillused today incertainapplications. efficiently on' one of the newer table top calculators.
The reasons for this include:
a. It is a 'particularly easy method toapply when modelling turbulent
electromagneticallydriven flow. By contrast, the application of 8
f
Finite Elements to the turbulent flow problem is non-trivial in the
extreme.
b. When Finite Element packages are not available (and they are not
in a surprisingly large number of instances), Finite Differences pro-
vide a straight forward and simple means of formulating and solv-
ing most two-dimensional problems. For "one-time" solutions, the
method has considerable advantages.
Perhaps the earliestnumericalsolution to a classic electroheat
problem was described by HolmdahlandSundbergin 1963' [41 who
considered the problem of predicting the temperature rise in a long,
inductivelyheated,ferromagneticcylinderwithparticularreference to
the passage of the cylinder through the Curie temperature. This prob-
lem is essentially two dimensional(radialposition;time)andcontains
the essentialfeaturesthat must be .retained in any simdlation.of an
induction
heating
application. The magnetic field strength H is
governed by the differential equation:

Figure 1. Temperature rise in a typical induction through heater

which is solved subject to the condition that H is constant on the sur-
face of the cylinder. In the case of a ferromagnetic cylinder, the mag-
neticpermeability @ must be a function of H at eachpoint inthe
material. Furthermore, both p and the electricalresistivity p must be
functions of temperature, again at each point in the cylinder.
Thetemperature distributionrequiredto determine p and p is
obtained by solving the differential equation:.
In addition to inherent simplicity, the aforementioned model has
the singularengineeringadvantage the the systemterminalproperties
are easily incorporated. In Figure 2, for example, the overall electrical
efficiency and input power factor are shown as a function of time for
the coils that produced the temperature rise of Figure 1.

where 0 is thetemperature indegrees Kelvin and w is the induced

power density, W/rn3. Similarly, c ,y and A are temperature dependant
values of specific heat, mass density and thermal conductivity, respec-
tively. The equation is to solved subject to the surface boundary condi-
tion:

0
I
where the subscripts s and a denote surface and ambient temperatures,
(11~is a convection loss coefficient, C, is a radiation loss coefficient and
Q, is a constant surface loss. The units for each term on the rhs of (3)
are W / m Z . Clearly,thisproblem is governed by two tightlycoupled
differential equations.
TheHolmdahl andSundbergformulation of thisproblem was
based on FiniteDifferencesandincorporatedtemperaturedependant
materialproperties(exceptingmagneticpermeability)togetherwith Figure 2. Typical timevariation of overallelectrical efficiency and
non-uniform solution grid. The conventional approach of introducing an input power factor for induction through heating.
ac permeability to account for the nonsinusoidal flux density was used
and the time dependance of temperature was differenced explicitly. Aside from induction heating, the early models of induction stir-
This formulation, with minor improvements, has been used with ringwerealso based on FiniteDifferences [6,71. These werefirst
considerable succes over the years [51. Obvious improvements include developed in the late 1960's and had the particular advantage that the
the' use of a Crank-Nicolson time discretization coupred with iterative essential features of the crucible induction furnace could be included in
up-dating of the material constants at each time step. .Piece-wise linear the model.Forstirringstudies, the moltenmetalcouldbeapproxi-
B-H models coupled with temperature dependant saturation levels offer mated by a right circular cylinder having constant electrical resistivity.
a significant improvement over the model used by Holmdahl and Sund- However, the finite length of the cylindrical load and the exciting coil,
2568

together with the important effect of the surrounding packets of lamina- the furnace ispowered at 50 Hz. Due to smoothing introduced by the
tions,could be included in this model. These latter features were all plotting routine,somestreamlinesare shown crossing the solution
necessary to properlypredict the stirring forces, the latter being local- boundary, which obviously should not be the case.
ized in the end regions of the load. A vector potential formulation was
used to computetheelectromagnetic fields andforces. Typicalfield
distributions predicted by thismodelareshowninFigure 3. These
results were used to examine the effects of crucible wear. It should be
noted that the shaped yokes used in this model are not typical in prac-
tice. Furthermore,thesharpcornered cylindrical model will severely
distort the force distribution in many instances.

IC'

Figure 3. Typical magnetic flux line distribution in a crucible induction Figure 4. Electromagnetic stirring
force
distribution (a) and flow
furnace, including the effect of the magnetic yokes (from Reichert [61). streamlines(b) in a crucible inductionmeltingfurnace. Flow stream-
lines predicted by Reichert laminar flow model.
In the case of electromagnetic stirring, there is only a very weak
coupling between the magnetic field and flow equations; in practice the The laminar model proposed by Reichert is perfectly adequate for
T X B motional emf can be neglected. The field and flow equations can the purpose of predicting the flow streamlines; it doesnot,however,
then be decoupledandsolvedindependantly.Reichert [71 outlined yield the actual stirring velocities. To do so requires the modeling, not
probably the first numerical solution for the flow in a crucible induction only of the flow equations, but also of the energy associatedwith the
furnace.RatherthanconsideraFiniteDifferencediscretization of the flow turbulence. The modeling of turbulent recirculatingflow in elec-
time averaged momentum equation: trometallprgical applicationshas been a very active area of research in
recent years [8-111. The conventional model for turbulent flowthat is
y(s.o)s = -Op + p,v2v + 7 (4) used today involves the replacement of p, in(4) and (8) by an
effective viscosity that is defined as:
and incompressibility condition:
0.5= 0 PLeE = P / + (10)

directly,theseequationswere recast in terms of astreampotential where p, is a turbulent viscosity. There are several methods available
and vorticity ii: for determining the turbulent viscosity [8,10,11], but the preferred one
today is to use the so-called K - E model. This model postulates that:

pr = C~YK~JE (1 1)

where C, is a constant, K is the turbulence kinetic energy per unit mass

7 7 x 7 = ii
to yield:
0x0.; = ii
In these equations, 7 is the time averaged electromagnetic force den-
sity, p isthe pressureresultingfrom the flow and y , is the laminar
viscosity of the molten metal. It will be noted that in this application,
the flow equations themselves comprise a coupled set. Furthermore, the
LHS of (4) and ( 8 ) represents the convection o f momentum, is non-
linear and dominates the solution. The discrete form of the flow equa-
tionstogether with the appropriateboundaryconditions [71 canbe
solved usingany suitablenumericaltechnique, provided thatprecau-
tionsare taken toensure numerical stability; themomentumterm
tends to introduce severe ill-conditioning.
Typical flow patterns predicted by this model are shown in Figure
4. Thisfigureshowsa rather odd furnace geometry in which the coil
and and melt are loosely coupled. The crucible contains aluminum and
(7) and E is the dissipation rateof the turbulence kinetic energy per unit
mass, Both K and E obey transport equations that are described in detail
elsewhere 111,121. These transportequationsare in themselves 2-
dimensional P D E s that are tightly coupled to the stream function and
vorticity. In effect, solution of the turbulent flow problem necessitates
the solution of four coupled PDE's. Due to the nonlinear nature of the
equations and the tight coupling, numerical formulation and solution of
(9) such problems is universally done using Finite Differences. To date, a
broad range of stirring problems have been solved using these models
with reasonable agreement being obtained with experimental results.
INTEGRAL EQUATION SOLUTIONS
As analternative to FiniteDifferences,Volume Integral Equa-
tionshave longbeenused to formulateandsolveinduction eddy
current problemsfor Cartesian and cylindrical geometries.Oneof the
earliersuchformulations was reported by Kolbe and Reiss i131, who
considered the current distribution in short right cylinders surrounded
by short coils. Similar solutions were later posed by Dudley and Burke
[14] and the basic method has been used extensively by Lupi[15,161.
These various formulations differ primarily in terms of the approxima-
tions used to represent the contributions of the volume integrals.
 2569

The most widely usedversion of theVolumeIntegraleddy tributionshownin Figure5b will neverthelessproduce a well distri-
current formulation is often referred to as the Coupled Circuit Method buted flow pattern.
[14,151. The conductingmaterial inthe problemgeometry is subdi- In Figure 6, the force distribution predicted by the Coupled Cir-
videdintoappropriatesubsectionsandusing known, expressions [171, cuitmodelwhenthecurvature of the freesurface is includedis
the resistance and self inductance of each sub-conductor, together with contrasted with the distributionobtainedwhen the conventionalright
the mutualinductancevaluesfor all sub-conductorpairs, aredeter- cylindrical approximation is used. In both cases, a 7% underfill is con-
mined. Collecting all terms results in an impedance matrix equation to sidered. A relatively fine subdivision was used at the curved surface to
be solvedfor theunknowncurrents.Clearly,equivalentformulations minimize errors that might be introduced by the step-wise approxima-
of the matrixequationcouldbeobtainedusingcolocationtechniques tion that is inherent in the Coupled Circuit approach. The purpose of
and moment methods. this figure is to illustrate that the effect. of all approximations must be
The Volume Integral formulation can be used to particular advan- carefully consideredwhenmodeling these systems. In thiscase, the
tage in axisymmetric eddy current problemswhere the excitation use of a right cylinder severely distorts the force distribution and leads
involves a coaxial coil, whereno magneticmaterial is involvedand to possibly completely erroneous conclusionswheninterpreting the
where the electricalresistivity ofall conductingmaterial is known. A consequent flow. The effects of modeling in this particular application
further stipulation would be that the conductors have a reasonably regu- are considered in detail elsewhere [l8I.
lar cross-section.VolumeIntegralsare then ideally suitedfor the 1

resulting exterior field problem in that the need to surround the solu- -- -- i-
-- --
tion region either by a false boundary, or by a 'Boundary Integral' sur- '80-

face, is avoided.
'70-
TheVolumeIntegralCoupledCircuitformulationisparticularly
advantageous when computing the force and pressure distributions that 160-
arerequired when analyzing electromagneticconfinementandstirring
configurations. The primary field yielded by the formulationis the .sor
current density J . This is mostconveniently'integratedto yield the
required components of magnetic flux density. It should be pointed out 140

that even when Finite Difference or Finite Element formulations of the

same problem g e used, it isalways preferable to integrate the current 130-

density to find B than it is to differentiate a vector potential. Since the c

stirring is critically dependent on the distribution of force rotation and 129-

thisdistributionis highly localized,it is imperative that numerical

errors, such as those that might result from_numer&al differentiation of
a vector potential, be minimized. Knowing J and B , the time averaged
force density:

and electromagnetic pressure:

E x E'
Pm = -
4P
can be directly.determined at all points of interest. As the analysis of
stirringrequiresthat the curl of the forcedensitydistributionbe
known, the following expression is convenient for use in cylindrical co-
ordinates in that numerical differentiation is avoided:

'40-

Typical distributions of curl (1 X E ) predicted by the Coupled '10

Circuit model for use in stirring studies are shown in Figure 5. These
distributions were obtained for a line frequency crucible induction fur-
nace melting aluminum. The furnace has a meltdiameter to penetra-
tion depth ratio of approximately 35, with the ratio of coil to melt diam-
"0
eters being1.2. As indicatedin the figure, the meltradius is 60 cm.
The Coupled Circuit simulation used a,total of 180 subdivisions in the
melt, these being concentrated near the metal surface due to the large 1.0-

a/8 ratio. The coil in the actual furnace has a diameter of 145 cm and
is 150 cmlong.Meltlengths of 140 and180 cm areshowninthe 30 - A-

figure, corresponding to an underfill of 7% and an overfill of 20%. All

computations were performed with a 30 turn coil and base coil current

-7
of lOOOAwas used for simplicity. ___\
\
In Figure 5, the conventional approximation of neglecting the pro-
nounced meniscus that occurs at the free surface has been used; a right I
cylindrical conductor was used to represent the melt. Clearly, the stir- 10 5C

ring forcesincreasedramaticallywhen the furnace is underfilled.This [a)

is to be expected. The force distribution shown in Figure 5a produces a
very intensestirringthat would tendto be localized near the surface. Figure 6. Comparison of stirring force distribution in a crucible induc-
The interesting feature in Figure 5a is that significant regions of posi- tionfurnacewhen the freesurfacemeniscusis:(a)neglected;(b)
tive and negativeforcerotationoccurtogether. Inthe uppercorner, included.
thepositiveforcerotationproduces the typical clockwise flow pattern
that is expected for this furnace, while the negative region will tend to Volume integrals provide a very convenient means of determining
preventstirringfromextending well intothe melt. A further conse- the induced currents, power distribution,forcesandpressuresthat
quence will be excessive turbulence. By contrast, the weaker force dis- occur in 2-dimensional, linear, axisymmetric, induction problems. The
2570

essential limitations of the method are that nonlinear materials cannot cylinder that isaxially directedandtangential. The magnitude H, of
be included in the problem geometry and that the number of elements the field strength is often known only in terms,of some coil parameter
into which the conductorscan be divided is limited to approximately such as voltage, current or power. For ferromagneticcylinders, the
200forpractical reasons. The method yieldsfully populatedsystem permeability will be afunction of H. In this heating application, the
matricesand beyond 200 unknowns, solution
and
memorycosts electrical resistivity p and permeability + will be functions of tempera-
become exorbitant.This difficultycan be partly overcome by finely ture.
subdividing only the regions of interest andusing large subdivisions
elsewhere. This particularapplication isconvenientinthat the electromag-
netic and thermal aspects of the problem are both described by interior
Rather than solve the system matrix equation directly using Gaus- fields. The electromagnetic problem can be solved in terms of the axi-
sianElimination,modaldecomposition [191 providesa particularly ally directed field strength:
attractivealternative.This is particularly true whenconsidering the
important practical problem of determiningthedistribution of losses ?I = H(x,y)hz (15)
within the individual turns of an induction coil. The scheme outlined
in [191 whereby onlya relativelyfew turns in a coil are modeledin which must satisfy the following PDE within the cylinder:
detail, the remaining turns being represented by currentsheets, pro-
videsasimple,elegantandcosteffectivemeans of assessing the
influence of coil geometry on losses. (16)
For the problems that typically ariseinelectroheat applications,
VolumeIntegralEquationsolutionshave thus far proven to bemore subject to the boundary condition that:
usefulthan themorerecent BoundaryIntegral[20,211 formulations.
The reason for this is that the volume formulation directlyyields the H = H,cosot (17)
power andforcedistributionsrequiredforstirringstudies.Although
such distributions can be derived from the Boundary,Integral Equation on the conductor surface. In the magnetic state, a single valued satura-
solution,some numericalproblemshavebeenexperiencedinthis tioncharacteristic will beused to relate the flux density B and field
regard in the past.Probably the most fruitful applicationof the boun- strength H:
dary methods in electroheat applications will use the recently developed
hybrid schemes [22,231 where the Boundary Integrals are used to prop- B = p(H)H (18)
erly represent exterior regions.

FINITE ELEMENT SOLUTIONS Using a Galerkin procedure, a Finite Element formulation of the
system PDE (16) andtheboundarycondition (17) canbe obtained.
In simulating induction heating (as opposed to induction stirring) The resulting matrix equation for the unknown values of H at interior
problems,FiniteElementsappeartobe clearly superior to Finite nodes is of the form:
Differences. In particular, for 2-dimensional problems (electromagnetic
and thermal), temperature dependent material properties and material
nonlinearities are handled with relative ease. Moreover, arbitrary cross
[[S(p)l + jw[Tl[+l]{H] = (6) (19)
sectionsandcomplexboundaryconditions are readily implemented where [SI and[TIarethenormalFEmatrices 1241 that resultfrom
while higherorderelements are particularlyuseful whendetermining linearelements while[+Iis a diagonal matrixcontainingnodal per-
the power distributionin some geometries. The emergingvolume- meabilities. Indeveloping (191, an effectivenodalpermeability has
boundary or hybrid[22,231 techniques offer attractive possibilities for beenused.This permeabilityis derivedfrom theassumed saturation
simulating exterior field problems such as occur in billet heating. characteristic (18) and is the ratio of rms B to rms H . It willalsobe
While aFiniteElementsimulation is the methodofchoicefor noted that [SI will be a function of p and that both p and p will in gen-
many electrothermal problems, it is rarely used to determine flow. This eral be a function of temperature, and thus position, €or this problem.
followsdirectly from the complex nature of the flow equations,espe- Details of the problemformulationand the permeability model are
cially when the flow is turbulent. given elsewhere [251.
To illustrate the application of Finite Elements to electro-thermal For the particular application of induction through heating that is
problems, consider the case of induction through heating. In this appli- being considered in this section, (19) can be decoupled from tempera-
cation, a long (usually ferromagnetic) cylinder is passed througha ture considerationsonlywhen the ferromagneticconductor isin the
series of induction coils, the objectbeing to raise the cylinder to a nonmagnetic state; i.e. above the Curie temperature. Only then are the
specifiedaverage temperature in a specified time. A normal constraint material properties relatively independent of temperature.
wouldbe that the maximum temperature differential between any two The temperature distribution within the conductor at any instant
points in the billet cross section not exceed 50 deg. C. The billet cross of time is governed by the following PDE:
section can be arbitrary but normal shapes include rounds together with
sharp cornered and round cornered squares and rectangles.

subject to the boundaryconditionthat the surface temperature satisfy

(3). A Galerkinprocedure has beenused to cast thisPDEin, Finite
Element form. I t is convenient to use first order elements and to let
the material parameters X, y and c be constant on any given element.
The average of the nodal temperatures for a given element is used to
interpolate from material data to determine values for these parameters.
Applying the Galerkinprocedure to (20) andintroducing the
boundarycondition atthe surface of the conductor,oneobtainsa
matrix equation of the form:

Figure 7. Loadof arbitrary cross section in induction through heating

application. Long coil (not shown) establishes the axially directed mag-
netic field.
where the vector { w ) represents the induced power density whereas the
The electromagneticaspects of inductionthroughheating are vector ( d ) is the contribution of anyconstantterms in the boundary
illustrated symbolically inFigure 7. The coil sections(notshown) are condition. The boundarycondition also augmentsthe [SI matrix. In
longincomparison with the billet diameter. The coil currentsare formulating (211, it is convenient to modify the radiation loss term in
azimuthalandestablishanelectromagnetic field at the surface of the the boundary condition slightly:
 257 1

where a is the half width of the billet. For this example, the convec-
ao +
- A 2 = a,(@, - 0,) a,(@, - 0,)+ Q, (22) tion and radiation losses from the billet surface were set to zero. The
an exampleprovides a simplemeans of calibrating the Crank-Nicolson
time discretization against known analytical solutions for the tempera-
where the radiation loss coefficient a , is: ture rise. Theeffect of frequency onthecornertemperature is
a, = C,(@f + O,Z)(O, + 0,) (23)
particularly interesting.

When the temperature of the billet is below Curie, the tempera-

where the subscript s denotes a surface temperature.
Given (21), a Crank-Nicolson time discretization has beenused
with considerable success to obtain a matrix equation for the unknown
temperatures at the (k+l)’st time step:
ture rise calculation involves the solution of a true coupled problem. In
this case, the LHS of (19) and (24) evolve with time. In order to solve
this class of problem, solution routines based on the Bi-Conjugate Gra-
dient method 1271 preconditionedwith an incomplete LU decomposi-
tion were used. It was felt that for the repeated solution of large matrix

[At 1
1[ T ( y c ) l + y1 [S(A)l (@+‘I,
equationsin which the matricesthemselvesevolvedwithtime,
iterative route mightofferadvantagesoverdirectsolvers
the
such as
MA28. In practice, for the problems considered to date (with approxi-
mately 500 unknowns), the direct solver appears to be somewhat faster.
= LIT(yc)l +
- y[S(X)] {ak] { w I k + (dl (24) However, the Bi-Conjugate Gradient code,withoutbeingparticularly
[At l l
well optimized, appears to have less then 1/2 the memory requirement
interms of theknowntemperatures and power densities at the k’th of MA28forsuchproblems.Experiencetodateinusingthe Bi-
time step. Standard procedure has been to use the temperature at the ConjugateGradientroutinetosolvethatmagnetic field problem is
k’th time step to determine values for the material properties and the summarized elsewhere [251.
radiationlosscoefficient.Whileaniterativeimprovementcan be
implementedtoupdate these values at eachtime step, this has been
found not to be necessary in most practical cases.
Equations(19)and (24) define the FiniteElementdiscretization
of the induction through heating problem. As a simple example of the
application of these equations, consider the case of a ferromagnetic bil-
letabove theCurie temperature. For thiscase,it is reasonable to
assume that the material properties are constant. Furthermore, the bil-
let is in the nonmagneticstate.Therefore, the electromagneticand
thermal problems are decoupled. Equation (19) can therefore be solved
once in order to determine the power distribution. Moreover, since the
LHS of (24) is constant, there are significant computational advantages
in using a sparse direct solver such as the Hamell routine MA28 1261
toadvance the temperaturesolutionintime.This routine hasproven
tobeveryefficientforthis class of problem.Experienceto date has
indicated that in terms of CPU requirements, it is the method of choice
(at leastwhen the number of unknownsareinthe 500-1000 range).
The memory requirements for MA28 can be very large, however. For
a typical exampleinvolving 500 unknowns,inexcess of 750 KB of
memory were required.
TemDeratUre Rise [per unit)

a:masscentre Figure 9. Typical finite element grid for inductionthroughheating

b: facecentre problems.
.40 c:corner
a/6= 1
a/6= 8
-
---- Temperature (deg F)
is00 t I

centre mass a:
-1
2
.20
b: face centre
c: corner
d: average
.10

0
0 .IO .20 .30 .40
Time (per unlt)
Figure 8. Temperature rise at the mass centre, face centre and corner
as a function of frequencyin asquare billetduringthroughheating.
Material properties are constant.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
A typical temperature rise curve for a nonmagnetic billet having a Time (sec)
square cross section is shown in Figure 8. For this example, the tem-
perature rise is normalized with respect to a base temperature: Figure 10. Temperature rise as a function of time in a ferromagnetic
billet subject to induction through heating at 500 Hz.

(25)
The grid shown in Figure 9 is typical of those used in simulating
the inductionthroughheating of a ferromagneticbillet. The billetin
where Po is the induced power perunit of billetlength,and a base this instance has a square cross section and the &fold symmetry of the
time: square billet has been exploited. It is particularly important to concen-
trate the elements near the billet surface due to the pronounced skin
effect while in the magnetic state.
2572

The temperature risein the billet is shown in Figure IO. Acon-
stant field strength was assumed at a supply frequency of 500 Hz. The
billetwas a typical carbon steel and the figure shows the temperatures
at the mass centre, face centre and corner as well as the average tem-
perature. A solution time step of 1 second was used. The material pro-
perties were updated every time step. At each time step, typically 8-10
iterations were required to determine the magnetic field distribution in
the magneticconductor. Similarly, in theorder of2-4Bi-Conjugate
Gradient iterations were required for temperature.
For the same example, the distribution of magnetic field strength
is shown in Figure 11 as a function of distance from the billet surface.
The distribution is taken along the y=O elevation. All values are nor-
malized wrt the surface field. The evolution of the field with increasing
time (i.e. temperature) is apparent. The distribution of relativeper-
meability at y=O is shown as a function of time in Figure 12. After 60
seconds of heating, it willbe noted that the surface becomes nonmag-
netic.
Magnetic Field Strength (per unit)
flow inconventional crucible inductionfurnaces isreasonablywell
understood.However,there are very interestingproblems still tobe
resolved in the variouscontinuous casting processes. These processes
includein-moldand below-mold stirring now usedin thecontinuous
casting of steel as well as the contact-free electromagnetic mold that is
used in the continuous casting of aluminum and brass.
A major area of interest in the area of inductionmelting is the
development of adequate models for the electromagnetic, flow and ther-
mal conditions in the channel induction furnace. The design of channel
furnaces still remains as much an art as a science, the major problem
being that the field problem is truly3-dimensional. A good analysis
would provide significant insight regarding the effect that channel
geometry has on the fluidflow; the major problem with these furnaces
is ensuring an adequate flow so thatthetemperature in the channel
does not build up to intolerable levels.
In other application areas, there remains a need for good smelting
furnacemodels.In this instance, a 2-dimensionalmodelgeometry
should be adequate. The major problem is that the thermal conditions
in the molten slag bath very strongly influence the electromagnetic field
distribution; the slagresistivity is very sensitive to smallchanges in
temperature and chemistry. In thisparticular problem, the difficulty is
todeterminethesteadystatetemperatureande.m. field distributions
simultaneously.Given a viable model, it would then bepossible to
answervery importantquestions relating to proper furnacegeometry
and operating procedure.

REFERENCES
R.Kraus,H. Wicker,Paper148, VlIthInt.Congress on Elec-
troheat, Warsaw, Poland, 18-22 September, 1972.
N.V. Ross, Paper 4A-65, World Electrotechnical Conf., Moscow,
21-25 June, 1977.
W.E.Schwabe, C.G.Robinson, Paper 105,VIIthInt.Congress
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
on Electroheat, Warsaw, Poland, 18-22 September, 1972.
Distance from billet surface (per unit) G. Holmdahl, Y. Sundberg,Paper633,Vth Int. Congress on
Electroheat, Wiesbaden, BRD, 30 September - 5 October, 1963.
Figure 11. Magnetic field strength distribution in a square billet as a J.D. Lavers, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. IA-14, pp.
function of time during induction through heating. 427-432, 1978.
K.Reichert, Elektrowarme Int., Vol. 26, pp. 113-123, 1968.
Relative Permeability K. Reichert, Scientia Electrica, Vol. XVI, pp. 126-146, 1970.

'Oo0 : E.D. Tarapore, J.W. Evans, Met. Trans. B, Vol. 7B,pp.343-351,

1976.
E.D. Tarapore, J.W. Evans, Met. Trans. B, Vol. 8B,pp.175-184,
1977.
J. Szekely, C.W. Chang,Ironmaking & Steelmaking, No. 3, pp.
190-204, 1977.
M. Choudhary, J. Szekely, Met. Trans. B, Vol. lIB, pp. 439-453,
1980.
M.Salcudean,R.I.L. Guthrie,Met.Trans. B, Vol. 9B,pp. 673-
680, 1978.
E. Kolbe.W. Reiss, Wiss. Zeit. der Hochschule fur Elektrotech-
nik Ifmenau, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 31 1-320, 1963.
R.F. Dudley, P.E. Burke,IEEETrans.Industry Applications,
Vol. IA-8, pp.565-571,1972.
F. Ceolini, S. Lupi,IEEE IAS Conf. Proc., pp.
1951-1957,
0
0
I
0.1
I I
0.3
I
0.4 0.5
I I Toronto, Canada, 1-5 October, 1978.
0.2 0.6
C. di Pieri, S. Lupi,Paper IV-Bal,IXthInt. Congress of Elec-
Distance from surface [per unit)
troheat, Cannes, France, 20-24 October, 1980.
F.W.Grover, Induciance Calculations: Working Formulas and
Figure 12. Distribution of relative permeabilityin a square billet as a Tables, New York: Dover Pub., 1962.
function of time during induction through heating. J.D. Lavers, P.P. Biringer, IUTAM Symp. onMet. Appl.of
MHD, Cambridge, England, 6-10 September, 1982.
P. Silvester, etal., IEEETrans.PowerApparatus & Systems,
FUTURE DIRECTIONS VOI. PAS-91, pp. 29-34, 1972.
The major interestininductionheating at themoment is the
T.H. Fawzi, et al., Proc. IEE, Vol. 123, pp. 725-728, 1976.
T.H. Fawzi et al., IEEETrans. Magnetics, Vol. MAG-19, pp.
development ofviable simulations that predict the temperature rise in 36-44, 1983.
2-D ferromagneticconductors. The eddy currentandtemperature rise
in the conductor, per se, are naturally of interest. Of more significance
S.J. Solon.J.M.Schneider.IEEE -
Trans. Magnetics. Vol. MAG-
18, 461-466, 1982.
in thesemodels,however, is the ability to predict the terminalperfor- S.J. Solon,J.P. Peng, J. Appl.Phys.. Vol. 53, pp. 8420-8422,
mance of the system, both under rated load conditions as well as when 1982.
the coil is running under sized workpieces at less than rated capacity. A M.V.K. Chari, P.P. Silvester, eds., Finite Elements inElectric and
goodsimulation willallow the designer to optimize a heatingline so Magneiic Field Problems, New York: Wiley, 1980.
that the workpiececanberaisedto the desired final temperature in a J.D. Lavers, IEEE Trans. Magnetics, to appear.
minimum time while maintaining the overall length of the heating line I.S. Duff, Harwell Report R.8730. HMSO, London.
as short as possible. D.A.H. Jacobs, Report RD/L/N 193/80, General Electricity
Research Laboratory, Leatherhead, Surrey, 1980.
In terms of molten metals, there remains the continuing interest
in turbulent electromagneticallydriven fluidflow. Atthe moment, the