Calculation of the Coupled Electromagnetic and Flow-Fields in a Hot Dip Galvanlzing Bath

Treatment of the boundary conditions in the inductor channel has been a key point in the simulation of heat and flows in the molten zinc pot. In this paper, the Lorentz force and Joule heat are obtained by calculating the electromagnetic fields, using a commercial CFD package, the ANSYS. The results of the Lorentz force and the Joule heat are then added to momentum and energy equations, respectively, as the additional sources posed by the electromagnetic field. The heat and fluid flows in the galvanizing bath is solved by using the CFX software, and the distributions of the flow and the temperature fields in the zinc pot are analyzed. The results show that molten zinc moves from the middle to the two sides of the channel. The crest value of the velocity is about 0.77 m/s while in most of the flow zone the velocity is above 0.3 m/s. These results agree well with the actual physical model, and the calculated hear flux is in good consistence with the empirical data. Therefore, the proposed coupled boundary conditions for the inductor channel by the present paper is validated.