Numerical simulations on liquid metal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in rectangular ducts with conducting or insulating walls under uniform or gradient inclined transversal magnetic fields are conducted in this study. The results of the influence of the inclined angles of the external magnetic fields on the MHD flow state are obtained. Numerical simulations based on fully developed modeling are conducted to investigate the influence of the inclined uniform magnetic field. This is a two-dimensional (2D) full solution for MHD duct flows. Three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations using a code based on Open Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFoam) are performed. This is a full 3D solution based on the electrical potential equations. The results of the 3D simulations confirm the 2D numerical simulation results. The effects of the inclined gradient magnetic fields on the MHD duct flow state are also studied using 3D numerical simulations. The effects of the inclined fringing magnetic fields on MHD pressure gradients and velocity distributions are presented. Numerical results of the MHD pressure gradients under a fringing magnetic field with no inclination agree with the experimental results from ALEX. The velocity jets will be pulled from the two corners of the duct in the upstream to the other two corners of the duct in the downstream due to the 3D MHD effects caused by the fringing magnetic field.
Magnetohydrodynamics in free surface liquid metal flow relevant to plasma-facing components