Magnetohydrodynamic flows of liquid metals in thin conducting ducts of various geometries in the presence of strong, non-uniform transverse magnetic fields are examined. The interaction parameter and Hartmann number are assumed to be large, whereas the magnetic Reynolds number is assumed to be small. Under these assumptions, viscous and inertial effects are confined in very thin boundary layer adjacent to the walls. At walls parallel to the magnetic field lines, as at the side walls of a rectangular duct, the boundary layers (side layers) carry a significant fraction of the volumetric flow rate in the form of high velocity jets. The presence of these jets strongly enhances heat transfer performance. In addition, heat transfer can be further improved by guiding the flow toward a heated wall by proper variation of wall thicknesses, duct cross-sectional dimensions, and/or shape. Flows in non-conducting circular ducts are also examined. Experimental results obtained from the ALEX experiments at the Argonne National Laboratory are used to validate the numerical predictions.
Computer code for analyzing liquid metal mhd flow in rectangular duct under strong transverse magnetic field