A Simplified Calculation Method of Heat Source Model for Induction Heating

Area of Science:

• Materials Science and Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Manufacturing Processes

Background:

• Line heating is crucial for shaping complex curved plates in shipbuilding.
• Automated line heating, particularly using induction heating, is increasingly adopted.
• Accurate temperature field prediction requires understanding heating parameters, but conventional methods are computationally intensive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify computational bottlenecks in traditional electromagnetic-thermal analysis for induction heating.
• To develop a more efficient method for calculating temperature fields in automated line heating.
• To validate the proposed model's effectiveness through experimental comparison.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the conventional electromagnetic-thermal computation process to find efficiency limitations.
• Proposal of a Gaussian function-based heat flux model to substitute electromagnetic computations.
• Development of an equivalence relationship for multi-coil induction heating systems.

Main Results:

• Identified the iterative electromagnetic computation as the primary bottleneck.
• The Gaussian heat flux model effectively replaces electromagnetic analysis for temperature field calculations.
• The proposed heat source model demonstrated effectiveness when validated against experimental and numerical results.

Conclusions:

• The Gaussian heat flux model offers a significant improvement in computational efficiency for automated line heating.
• This approach simplifies the simulation process by bypassing detailed electromagnetic analysis.
• The validated model provides a more practical tool for optimizing induction heating processes in shipbuilding.