Magnetohydrodynamic study of electromagnetic separation of nonmetallic inclusions from aluminum melt

Magnetohydrodynamic flow around the nonmetallic inclusions in aluminum melt and the force exerted on the inclusions were explored by dimensional analysis and numerical calculations. Dimensional analysis shows that the invariant \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $$A = {{JB\rho _f d_p^3 } \over {\mu _f^2 }}$$ \end{document} characterizes the force exerted on the inclusions and the flow intensity of the melt. The physical significance of A is represented as a modified particle Reynolds number that reflects the effects of electromagnetic force. The fluid flow around the particle becomes unstable when A>2×103. It is shown that the neglect of the inertial terms has little effect on the force exerted on the inclusions in the range of A≤1×106. However, the analytical solution of the maximum velocity inside the melt does not apply due to the appearance of turbulent flow in the case of A>2×103.