Abstract <p>Liquid metal flows generated in a cylindrical cell by the alternating magnetic field of a continuous or a sectioned inductor are studied numerically. It is found that the inductor parameters significantly affect the energy distribution of liquid metal velocity fluctuations. The more intense fluctuations are shift to the cell ends and the intensity of the fluctuations decreases as the inductor length increases. Using a sectioned inductor consisting of a set of solenoids accumulates the effect of the end boundaries of each section and generates an intense flow distributed over a cylindrical cell. A sufficiently uniform distribution of the velocity fluctuation field along the cell can be obtained without increasing the total number of ampere turns.</p>