Design of Induction Coil of a Coreless Induction Furnace

to Melt Aluminum
Muhammad Bilal Iqbal, Nauman Masud, Muhammad Aqil
Department ofElectrical Engineering
Pakistan Institute ofEngineering and Applied Sciences
P. 0. 45650, Islamabad, Pakistan
bilaI91.n@gmail.com, {fac082, aqil}@pieas.edu.pk

Abstract - This paper proposes the design of a coreless induction furnace (the number of turns of primary coil, inductance of the
furnace to melt Aluminum, which is represented by a coil, resistance of the coil, and the maximum flux density) is
transformer with N primary turns and one short circuited then, determined based on the transformer theory.
secondary turn. The mechanical parameters of the furnace along
The temperature effect on the equivalent inductance is
with the thermal parameters of the charge material, determined
investigated in relation with the permeability, skin depth, and
by the desired furnace capacity, provide the required melting
magnetic field. This investigation dictates the necessity of a
power. Design considerations and computations of its mechanical
and electrical parameters are carried out for the anticipated
phase-lock loop (PLL) circuit to keep the LC circuit at
melting power. The temperature dependency of the inductance resonance to keep the power factor at one. To ensure the
coil is investigated to propose the essentials of its power control power fed to the induction furnace to be used in heating
for better efficiency. Furthermore, a computer program is process, a resonant inverter is proposed; a typical circuit to
developed to obtain the optimal coil design besides computing the elaborate the energy flow sequence and control strategy of an
other parameters by taking the geometric limitations into induction furnace is shown in Fig. 1.
account.
II. DESIGN ANALYSIS
Index Terms - Coreless induction furnace, Induction coil,
Mechanical and electrical designs of a coreless induction furnace. The analysis is carried out for 4 kg of molten AI.

I. INTRODUCTION A. Mechanical Design

A coreless induction furnace basically consists of an induction
Induction furnaces are used in metal industry because of
coil (inside which is a crucible to hold the melt), the cooling
their better efficiencies, high production rates, and clean
system, and the outer shielding shell. The selection of crucible
working environment. Induction heating is based on four
based on its thermal and chemical compatibility [7]. The
physical phenomena: (i) production of electromagnetic field
mechanical shape of the induction furnace is shown in Fig. 2.
due to alternating currents in the working coil, (ii) the resultant
The height of the coil should be more than the diameter to
induced e.m.f. in the work piece, (iii) production of heat in the
have concentrated magnetic flux lines inside the coil [8]. The
work piece due to resistive losses, and (iv) the heat diffusion
furnace capacity determines the diameter and height of the
from hotter to colder parts [1][2][3][4][5]. The required power
charge material. The optimal height to diameter ratio is given
rating for the system is influenced by the factors: charge
by [7]
capacity, time to melt/heat, type of material, and operating
frequency of the system. The amount of energy required to H
-'" =1.6 �2
reach the pouring temperature of the metal depends upon the Dill (1)
specific heat of solid metal, the latent heat of fusion, and the
where Hm represents the height of the molten charge material,
specific heat of liquid metal [6].
and Dm represents the diameter of metal i.e., the internal
This paper reported the mechanical and electrical designing of
diameter of crucible. The volume of molten metal is given by
a coreless induction furnace to melt Aluminium (AI). The
the relation
mechanical design incorporates the structure of induction coil,
refectory, and the outer shielding shell while the electrical V,II = 1rD,!HIII (2)
design includes the induction coil, the optimum operating 4
frequency, the required power, and some aspects of rectifier Also, from the knowledge of the material properties, we have
and inverter interfacing. The diameter of melt, height of melt, the relation
and dimensions of coil are determined by the desired furnace M
capacity. The required heat energy, depending on the solid VIII =- (3)
PAl
specific heat, latent heat of fusion, and liquid specific heat of
where Mis the mass of metal, and PAl the density of molten AI.
the charge material, to melt the charge material are assessed to
formulate the required melting power. The furnace is
The thickness of the wall of the crucible at middle is [7]
represented by a transformer with N primary turns and one
short circuited secondary turn. The electrical parameters of the

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5754-5/14/$26.00 ©2014 IEEE 523

 B. Required Power
Required power of the induction furnace depends upon the
Power Control
furnace capacity, material properties and required Time for
Circuit
melting. If the system is designed with undersize power then
the efficiency of the system, i.e., the charge capacity per KWh,
will seriously be affected [5]. The above said defect may fail
the system to achieve the temperature of pouring [5].
Thermal heat energy required for the system is
Qh =Qm +Qs +Qsh (11)
Outputl'a�c
where Qm is the heat energy (in joules) required to melt the
maximum charge capacity, Qs is the heat energy (in joules)
Fig. I Block diagram of an induction furnace required to melt the material of slag, and Qsh is the heat energy
(in joules) required to superheat the melt. Energy required to
melt the metal depends upon specific heat capacity of the
material, which is given by
Qh =MCf1T+MLI
(12)
where C is the material's specific heat capacity, f1T =� To is
-

the rise in temperature, r; is the melting point in oK, To is the

ambient temperature in oK (298K), and LI is the material's

1
latent heat in joules. Similarly,
Q,h =MCn7,h (13)
where Cm is the specific heat capacity of liquid metal in
J/Kg.K, and Tsh is the superheat temperature in oK. The heat
Fig. 2 Geometrical shape of induction furnace
energy required to melt the slag is
Qs =KG (14)
r:: =2.66.JM (4) where K is the slag quantity taken as 4% of total charge, and G
The internal diameter of inductor can be calculated with the is the heat energy in joules to melt the slag. The power
relation required to generate the heat energy in a given time can be
calculated by the relation
(5)
where Tins is the thickness of insulation layer. The height of P= Qh
t (15)
the induction coil can be determined as [6]
Hin =(1.1 � 1.2)xHm (6) where t represents the time to attain the temperature. The
useful energy is about 62-75% and rest is lost. Induction coil
shares most part of the lost energy i.e. 17-23% [9][10][11].
The total height of the furnace (bottom to top) is
HI =Hili + h ' + Tb' (7)
s
where hsl represents the height of slag formed which is 4% of C. Electrical Design
Hm [6], and Tb/ is the thickness of the crucible bottom. The For electrical design of the induction furnace, the melted
outer shell of the induction furnace is a metallic cylinder cylindrical load put is considered, as shown in Fig. 3. The
(possibly iron) which surrounds the induction coil. This shell cylindrical coil of induction furnace is modeled as solenoid
provides (i) mechanical shielding to the induction coil against and magnetic flux density inside the coil is calculated. This
the molten metal, and (ii) electromagnetic shielding to the changing in magnetic flux induces an e.m.f within the metallic
surrounding equipment against the induction coil. The work piece. In previous section, the required power was
diameter of this cylinder is calculated using heat energy equations. The same required
Ds = Dill +2(ODCII +7;IIS +Gair) (8)
power can also be calculated using the magnetic flux density
and the induced e.m.f in the metallic work piece. By
where ODell is the outer diameter of copper tubing, Gair is the
correlating these power equations, the electrical parameters of
air gap between coil and shell. The overall diameter of the
the furnace are calculated as [12]
furnace would be
qJp = BpA
DI = D +27', (16)
s (9)
where Bp is the peak value of flux, A is the cross sectional
where Ts is the thickness of shell wall. The height of shell is
area. Therefore,
qJ=Jrr 2 Bp SIll
Hs = HI (10) . OX
(17)

524
Due to this changing magnetic field, an e.m.f is induced in the
metallic work piece which is given by
drp
1cot!. = [ ]
� 2 +(1)2
N. I

2
e=-=1[(ur B p cos UJt
III
(25)
dt (18) where 1m is the real current through metal resistance and 1; is
The average value of this induced e.m.f is the current through secondary inductance. Rewriting (25) as
e 2tr2 fr2 Bp
E= = (26)
F2 F2 (19) The magnetic field strength (H field) due to magnetizing­
The resistance of each strip of thickness dr is given by inductance LM is
pi
2trrp N
H= iJi
R= =
Hmdr Hin (27)
(20)
A
where p is the resistivity of the work piece. The phenomenon where H = B /11 and B=B
p /..fi . Putting these values in
of skin effect causes almost all the current to flow to a certain (26) and solving for Nin, yields
depth known as 'reference depth' [1]. If this reference depth is
considered as one strip, then the resistance of this elemental
path would be N in = _1_
,-------::-

(Jm)2 +
[ ]
B H
_P_I_n
2

trDmP
1cOil F211 (28)
R=-- Thus, the number of turns of the induction coil can be
Hm!; (2 1) calculated by (28). This completes the basic design of the
where!;=�2p/ 0Jjl is the reference depth. The induced e.m.f induction furnace. For analysis point of view, the equivalent
in the work piece causes the eddy current to flow through the inductance and resistance of the system can be calculated by
outer strip which is given by the Ohm's law as utilizing the model diagram in Fig. 4. The primary inductance
(self-inductance of the coil) Lpri is given by
E trDm Hm Bpf!;
1= =
R J8p (2 9)
(22) where L, is the leakage inductance of the coil. The self-
These eddy currents, induced perpendicular to the magnetic inductance Lpri can also be written as
lines while passing through the layers of work piece, cause the N2 A
power dissipation within the work piece which can be Lpn. = 110l1r III "'Ill

formulated by utilizing (2 1) and (22) as Hill (30)

tr3 Hm D3m Bp2 f2 .";: where J.1o is the permeability of the free space, J.1r is the relative
P= 12 R =
8p permeability of work piece, and �n =trDi� /4 is the area of the
(23)
The maximum magnetic flux density is determined by induction coil. To determine the value of magnettzmg­
equating (15) with (23) inductance, the voltages across the parallel network are
8pQ,h
,------ equalized as
Bp= 1m 2 R =I 2tr
tr3 H D!P!;t -N m i jNinLM
(24) Nin in (31)
where t represents time to attain the required temperature. The
Solving (2 9) for L, by considering (28), (30), and (31), we
relation (24) provides the gate way to calculate the electrical
obtained
parameters of induction coil and that of the work piece.

(32)
The induction furnace can be modeled as a transformer with
induction coil as 'N' number of primary winding turns,
connected to the alternating current source and the work piece
as one shorted tum of secondary winding [6]. The electrical
equivalent model of the induction coil with the work piece as
load is shown in Fig. 4.
The model shown in Fig. 4 is the real model as of considering
the resistances of the inductor. When the secondary coil's
parameters are shifted towards primary side, the coil current
1coil has two paths and is given by the relation

Fig. 3 Magnetic field passing through the work piece

525
 C
Lpfi
L m
�f �
Lsec RL
system. For a given charge capacity of certain material, the
work piece diameter is fixed while the reference depth
� �2p / f.1.OJ is a function of operating frequency. The
=

dependence of reference depth on operating frequency in Al is

N:!
illustrated in Fig. 6. The Dn,/I:; ratio introduces a new term
called 'critical frequency' which is achieved at Dm/I:; =4. It is
R L, n the frequency bellow which the efficiency of the system drops
rapidly.
The computation of the formulations is carried out by writing
a script-m file in Matlab™. Further coding is performed to
find the optimal design of the coil by taking the geometric
limitations into account. The flowchart of the script is
illustrated in Fig. 7. Congested turn of induction coil produces
concentrated magnetic flux, hence, provides better efficiency.
But on the other hand, they may lead to an electrical short
circuit. Crucible's height-to-diameter ratio (H,/Dm) also affects
the efficiency of the system. A less than 70% of magnetic flux
Fig. 4 Electrical equivalent model of induction furnace
lines would be inside the coil for a 1: 1 ratio of H,/Dm [8].

The current I, through magnetizing-inductance is very small as

compared to the current Im/Nin through the work piece
resistance. Thus, NinLM can be neglected and the equivalent
inductance of the system would be equal to L, and is given as

Leq = L[ =
fff.1.o Ni� Di;, .J2f.1.o Ni;, R",
4Hin
(33)

The plot of equivalent inductance versus the temperature of

the metal is obtained through a computer code by 0.8
incorporating the equations (11) to (33) which is shown in Fig.
5. 0.7

The equivalent resistance of the system is [12]

Req = RCI/ + N,7,R", (3 4)
0.6
:-
0 -: 2- 00
- 1-=00'---= =---:::
30=-0 ---:
4-=00 - 5=00
=---= = 0----:8=00
60-=-0 ---=70
Temperature(C)
:--:::
- 90-=-0 ---:-:!
1 000

Fig. 5 Effect of temperature on equivalence inductance of the coil

where RCII=Pculc,!Acll is the resistance of the copper tubing,
used to construct the induction coil, leu=NinTrDin is the length of
copper tubing, A
clI � (OD 2 -ID2 ) is the effective area of
=
Table I. Mechanical design of the induction furnace for an AI of mass 4Kg.

4 ell ell

S# Parameters Value Unit

copper tubing, ODeu is the outer diameter of copper tubing,
1 Volume of the charge (Vm) 1600 cm3
and IDeu is the inner diameter of copper tubing. By utilizing
Height-diameter ratio (Hm / D m)

]
2 1.6

[
(21), the equivalent resistance of the system takes the form
4Dinpcu +_ff_D=m_N=in,-P 3 Diameter of melt (Dm ) 10.75 cm
Req N
=
In OD2 -ID2 Hm '=';:
ell eu (35) 4 Height of melt ( Hm ) 17.20 cm

III. DESIGN OPTlMIZATION 5 Refractory thickness at walls (7;,) 0.53 cm

The theoretical design of the induction furnace, discussed so 6 Bottom refractory thickness (�/) 1.5 cm
far, may not be optimal. For a given material charge capacity, Internal diameter of coil (Dill)
7 12.02 cm
the tunable parameters are (i) input power (voltage and
current), (ii) operating frequency, (iii) melting time, (iv) 8 Height of inductor coil (Hili) 18.93 cm
copper tubing, (v) spacing between coil turns, and (vi) crucible 9 Diameter of shielding cylinder (Ds) 15.3 cm
geometry. The input power has direct influence on melting
time; more power results in fast melting and slow melting 10 Height of shielding cylinder (Hs) 19.39 cm
requires a lesser power as evident from (15). The operating 11 Overall furnace Diameter (D}) 15.9 cm
frequency of the system has effects on the system efficiency Overall furnace height (H})
12 19.39 cm
and stirring characteristics of the melt. Metal diameter to
reference depth ratio, Dn,/I:;, determines the efficiency of the

526
 � ,-----�----�--, Table 2. Electrical design of the induction furnace for an Al of mass 4Kg and
18 operating frequency of 17 KHz.

16 S# Parameter Value Unit

14 1 Power (P) 4.86 KW

12
2 Time to melt (t) 20 mm
10

3 Number of coil turns (Nin) 24 turns

17 KHz
4 Coil current (Icoil) 250 A

-- ----::07.5 ------�-----:",':
00:--- .5 ----
:-
1
----::------7
2.5
5
6
Coil resistance (Rcu)
Resistance of charge material (Rm)
13
0.141
mn

mn

10"
Frequency(Hz)
Fig. 6 Effect of frequency on reference depth
x
7 Current in the metal (Im) 6.11 KA

8 Equivalent resistance (Req) 89.7 mn

9 Equivalent inductance (Leq) 8.98 J.lH

IV. RESULTS
For a desired mass of AI, taken as 4Kg, the computed
mechanical design is tabulated in Table 1. The required power
for this geometry is found to be 4.86 KW. To accommodate
the melting of Al scrape (tinny pieces), the optimal reference
depth is selected by choosing the 17 KHz operating frequency,
see Fig. 6. For this design, the electrical parameters are shown
in Table 2. This completes the anticipated design of the
induction furnace. The temperature effect on the equivalent
inductance has also been investigated in relation with the
permeability, skin depth, and magnetic field, as formulated in
(33), which is illustrated in Fig. 5. It is apparent from Fig. 5
that a change in temperature drastically changes the equivalent
Calculate the skin
depth inductance of the coil which, in turn, changes the power factor
and, consequently, the efficiency of the furnace. This
investigation dictates the necessity of a phase-lock loop (PLL)
circuit to keep the LC circuit at resonance to keep the power
Skin depth NO factor at one.
acceptable

V. CONCLUSION
This paper presented a design of coreless induction furnace to
Calculate the no. melt Aluminium. Both mechanical and electrical requirements
of turns of coil
for ind uction furnace were considered. The geometrical
parameters of the furnace such as diameter of melt, the height
of melt, and dimmennsions of coil were determined directly
,--....eN",,-< coil realizable by the furnace capacity. The heat energy required to melt the
charge material depends on the solid specific heat, latent heat
offusion, and liquid specific heat of the charge material. From
Calculte which, the power required to melt the material was
matching
determined. The electrical parameters of the furnace such as
inductor
number of turns of coil, inductance of the coil, resistance of
the coil and the maximum flux density were determined based
Calculate filter on transformer concept, where the furnace is represented by a
parameters
transformer with N primary turns and one secondary turn that
is short circuited. By establishing the relation of coil's
inductance on temperature, the PLL based power control is
proposed for better efficiency.
Fig. 7 Flow chart of the code for the computations and for optimal design of
the coil by keeping the geometrical limitations.

527
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