Unsteady regimes of hydrodynamics and heat transfer at production of high-temperature silicate melts

An absolutely new setup for production of high-temperature silicate melts with application of energy of low-temperature plasma is considered in this paper. The mathematical model “stream function — vorticity” was developed and numerically implemented in transformed variables. This model describes the unsteady regimes of convective heat transfer in the melting furnace. The effect of time and electric current density on the flow structure and heat transfer was studied. The features of hydrodynamics caused both by unsteady character of the process and significant dependence of thermal-physical characteristics on temperature were identified.