Liquid Metal Pool Behavior during the Vacuum Arc Remelting of INCONEL 718

Non-steady-state ensemble arc behavior has been observed during the Vacuum Arc Remelting (VAR) of 508-mm-diameter ingots of INCONEL 718. The liquid metal flow in the melt pool of a 508-mm ingot during VAR has been simulated under two alternative sets of conditions: (1) a steady-state axisymmetrical arc distribution, as has been typically used in modeling work previously; and (b) a transient asymmetrical arc distribution. Due to the computational requirements, neither mass flux nor solidification were modeled; instead, the pool shape was fixed from measurements from a 508-mm-diameter ingot, and a constant pool wall temperature of 1609 K was used. The transient simulation assumed a localized Gaussian arc whose effective center was located at a distance of 0.1 m from the ingot centerline; this simulation rotated clockwise around the centerline with a period of 36 seconds. The steady-state model was simulated with axisymmetrical distributions of current and power input to the pool top surface calculated by time averaging the transient current and power inputs. The standard k-ε solver of ANSYS CFX 5.6 software was used for both simulations. The transient model results suggest that 5 seconds of asymmetrical arc behavior is enough to change the pool from steady state to transient and that, after 30 seconds, the flow is almost fully developed (at least to the accuracy of the model) and dominated by the Lorentz force. Aspects of the model results agree with key features of the melt pool observed during VAR.