The purpose of the research is to develop improved methods for handling liquid metals through the use of electromagnetic forces. Specific thrust areas of the research include: source coil design, including development of the three-dimensional boundary element inverse problem and forward problem solvers and development of an optimization methodology for choice of specific source configuration; three-dimensional levitation, confinement and shaping, including experimental documentation, through digital image analysis, of position and shape of liquid metal interfaces; studies of whole-body, surface-coupled and bulk- coupled instability mechanisms, and studies of solidification structures of electromagnetically cast metals, with comparisons to conventionally cast structures. The modeling work centers upon development of self- consistent numerical tools for the design of source coil configurations and excitations, based upon desired geometries of levitated liquid metals and criteria which discriminate among alternative source options. The experimental work is aimed toward validation of modeling concepts and results, as well as investigation of practical electromagnetic configurations for flow control and shaping. If effective techniques for handling liquid metals without physical contact can be developed, it could greatly increase the efficiency of the conventional casting industry.
