This research was performed in follow-up tothe modeling work of Schwartz and Szekely that supportedthe electromagnetic levitation experiments of theSpacelab IML-2 mission. The purpose of the experimentswas to determine the surface tension and viscosity ofundercooled metals. A key component of the analyticalwork is to predict the shape of the levitated dropletsin the experiment, in order to acheve correctinterpretation of the experimental results and accuratemeasurement of the thermophysical properties. Recentresults from mathematical modeling have comparedfavorably to actual droplet shapes, although the extentof deformation was underestimated. A reason cited forthis discrepancy was the lack of an appropriateturbulence model with which to simulate the flow. The#kappa# - #epsilon# and enhanced viscosity models thatwere used assumed an effective viscosity that wasisotropic througout the droplet. This assumption istypically inaccurate for flows with localized regionsof both swirling and rotational flows. In the currentwork, turbulent flow is simulated using theRenormalization Group Theory (RNG) method. The CFD codeFLUENT is used to perform the calculations. A directcomparison is made between the results of the #kappa#-#epsilon# and the RNG models, and results from the RNGmodel are compared with experimental results from the IML-2 mission.
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