Magnetoconvection

Magnetoconvection

Convection in liquid metal flow in the presence of magnetic field (magnetoconvection) has recently received more attention due to its application in the liquid metal breeding blanket used in a Tokamak fusion reactor. The effects of magnetic fields on heat and mass transfer in natural and mixed convection systems are studied numerically. Configurations of pipe and duct flows, with various boundary conditions at different Hartmann, Rayleigh and Reynolds numbers are investigated.

    Flow in a horizontal duct with volumetric internal heating and zero mean velocity. Instantaneous distribution of streamfunction (left) and temperature (right) for the flow at Gr=1011.

    Flow in a horizontal duct with volumetric internal heating and non-zero mean velocity. Instantaneous distribution of velocity for the flow at Gr=109, Re=2⋅105 (left), Re=106 (right).

    Flow in a vertical duct with sidewall heating and downward mean velocity. Instantaneous distributions of vorticity in the flows at Gr=106, Ha = 100, Re = 500 (left); Gr=108, Ha = 1000, Re = 5000 (middle); and Gr=1010, Ha = 104, Re=5⋅104(right).

Further reading

Oleg Zikanov, Yaroslav Listratov, Xuan Zhang and Valentin Sviridov Instabilities in Extreme Magnetoconvection. In: Gelfgat A. (eds) Computational Modelling of Bifurcations and Instabilities in Fluid Dynamics. Computational Methods in Applied Sciences 50 (2019), Springer.
 
Xuan Zhang and Oleg Zikanov. Convection instability in a downward flow in a vertical duct with strong transverse magnetic field. Phys. Fluids 30 (2018), 117101.
 
Xuan Zhang and Oleg Zikanov. Thermal convection in a toroidal duct of a liquid metal blanket. Part II. Effect of axial mean flow. Fusion Eng. and Des. 116 (2017), 40–46.
 
Xuan Zhang and Oleg Zikanov. Two-dimensional turbulent convection in a toroidal duct of a liquid metal blanket of a fusion reactor. J. Fluid Mech. 779 (2015), 36–52.
 
Xuan Zhang and Oleg Zikanov. Mixed convection in a horizontal duct with bottom heating and strong transverse magnetic field. J. Fluid Mech. 757 (2014), 33–56.

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