  This article describes a simple heat model of the vacuum arc remelting (VAR)
process that includes solution of the nonlinear heat conductivity equation with
the nonlinear boundary conditions which are typical for VAR process. The
finite-difference analogue of the model equations was obtained through the
finite volume method. To check the efficiency of the simplified model that does
not include magnetohydrodynamic phenomena in the liquid metal pool, the
comparison has been made of the numerical calculation of the metal pool depth
when melting the Russian titanium alloy VT3-1 with the results of
radiographical tests. It was established that the model adequately describes
the test data for various melting modes (ingot diameter and current strength).
