Experimental Observations and Numerical Prediction of Induction Heating in a Graphite Test Article

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2009

OSTI ID:970022

Jankowski, Todd A ^[1]; Johnson, Debra P ^[1]; Jurney, James D ^[1]; Freer, Jerry E ^[1]; Dougherty, Lisa M ^[1]; Stout, Stephen A ^[1]

---

1. Los Alamos National Laboratory

The induction heating coils used in the plutonium casting furnaces at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are studied here. A cylindrical graphite test article has been built, instrumented with thermocouples, and heated in the induction coil that is normally used to preheat the molds during casting operations. Preliminary results of experiments aimed at understanding the induction heating process in the mold portion of the furnaces are reported. The experiments have been modeled in COMSOL Multiphysics and the numerical and experimental results are compared to one another. These comparisons provide insight into the heating process and provide a benchmark for COMSOL calculations of induction heating in the mold portion of the plutonium casting furnaces.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 970022
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-09-05839; LA-UR-09-5839; TRN: US201002%%1063
• Resource Relation: Conference: 2009 COMSOL Users Conference ; October 8, 2009 ; Boston MA, USA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
BENCHMARKS
CASTING
FORECASTING
FURNACES
GRAPHITE
HEATING
INDUCTION
LANL
PLUTONIUM
THERMOCOUPLES