Numerical analysis of an improved heating device for the electromagnetically driven oscillating cup viscometer

• Main Authors: Zhaoyong Mao, Tianqi Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2017-10-01
• Series: Advances in Mechanical Engineering
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/1687814017729075

The electromagnetically driven oscillating cup viscometer is developed to accurately determine the conductivity and viscosity of molten semiconductors. To reduce the sample’s temperature gradient during the heating process, the sidewall of the sample is heated by a tubular heating furnace; however, the sample still has a temperature gradient. A numerical simulation is conducted in this study, aiming to reveal the steady-state heat transfer mechanism of saturated salt water in a heating device based on the electromagnetically driven oscillating cup viscometer. The numerical results show that the temperature gradient can be effectively reduced by increasing the insulating layer. As the thickness of the insulating layer increases, the temperature gradient of the sample is reduced. When the thickness of the insulating layer increases above 10 mm, the rate of reduction in the temperature gradient decreases. In this article, the optimum thickness range of the thermal insulating layer outside the heating device is obtained, which provides a theoretical basis and reference data for the design of the insulating layer of the electromagnetically driven oscillating cup viscometer heating device.