Effect of Hartmann layer resolution for MHD flow in a straight, conducting duct at high Hartmann numbers

Abstract

Conventionally, obtaining a converged solution for a MagnetoHydroDynamic problem entails a highly resolved Hartmann boundary layer, leading to excessive time and computational requirements. For high Hartmann number flows through electrically conducting channels, majority of the current loops close through the walls and the Hartmann layer contributes only a small fraction of the global current path. Hence, the effect on flow parameters due to coarsening the mesh of the Hartmann Layer was investigated using the ANSYS FLUENT code. Numerical simulations have been carried out in square and rectangular ducts with wall conductance ratio of 0.156 and 0.078 respectively. Magnetic field was varied from 1T to 4T to obtain solution for Hartmann numbers $\left (Ha=Ba\sqrt {\sigma / \mu } \right )$ in the range of 260–1040 for the square duct, and 520–2080 for the rectangular duct. B, a,μ, and σ are the strength of applied magnetic field, characteristic length of the channel, dynamic viscosity and electrical conductivity of the fluid respectively. The errors in estimating core and side layer peak velocity and fully developed pressure gradient were found to be low even for a grid system having 46% coarser grid than a well-resolved system. The analysis indicated that for high Hartmann number flows through thick, conducting ducts, coarsening the mesh in the Hartmann boundary layer reduced computational time, not compromising on the solution accuracy and appears to be a promising option for complex geometry MHD simulation.