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

Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection is not only a classical problem in fluid dynamics, but also plays an important role in many metallurgical applications, like Czochralski crystal growth. The measurement of the flow field and of the dynamics of the emerging large-scale circulation (LSC) in liquid metals is a challenging task due to the opaqueness and the high temperature of the melt. The contactless inductive flow tomography (CIFT) is able 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, the first measurements of the flow induced magnetic field in a RB setup, which can be used to investigate the dynamics of the LSC, will be presented. Additionally, the quality of the reconstruction of the three dimensional flow field, for such a configuration, will be investigated numerically.