# Visualization of the global flow structure in a modified Rayleigh-Benard setup using contactless inductive flow tomography

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of contactless inductive flow tomography to visualize and analyze the flow structure and large-scale circulation in a modified Rayleigh-Benard setup with liquid metals, combining experimental and numerical approaches.

## Contribution

It introduces the first measurements of flow-induced magnetic fields in a Rayleigh-Benard setup and evaluates the reconstruction quality of 3D flow fields using different sensor configurations.

## Key findings

- Successful visualization of flow structures in liquid metals.
- Insights into the dynamics of large-scale circulation.
- Assessment of sensor configurations for flow reconstruction.

## Abstract

Rayleigh-Benard convection is not only a classical problem in fluid dynamics but plays also an important role in many metallurgical and crystal growth applications. The measurement of the flow field and of the dynamics of the emerging large-scale circulation in liquid metals is a challenging task due to the opaqueness and the high temperature of the melts. Contactless inductive flow tomography is a technique to visualize the mean three-dimensional flow structure in liquid metals by measuring the flow induced magnetic field perturbations under the influence of one or several applied magnetic fields. In this paper, we present first measurements of the flow induced magnetic field in a Rayleigh-Benard setup, which are also used to investigate the dynamics of the large-scale circulation. Additionally, we investigate numerically the quality of the reconstruction of the three-dimensional flow field for different sensor configurations.