Contactless electrical conductivity measurement of electromagnetically levitated metallic melts

A facility for noninvasive measurements of the electrical conductivity of liquid metals above and below the melting temperature is presented. It combines the containerless positioning method of electromagnetic levitation with the contactless technique of inductive conductivity measurement. Contrary to the conventional measurement method, the sample is freely suspended within the measuring field and, thus, has no exactly predefined shape. This made a new theoretical basis necessary with implications on the measurement and levitation fields. Furthermore, the problem of the mutual inductive interactions between the levitation and the measuring coils had to be solved.