Electromagnetic Pump With Thin Metal Walls

Abstract

This paper treats a liquid-metal flow in a rectangular duct with a strong, uniform, transverse magnetic field and with thin metal walls, except for two finite-length, perfectly conducting electrodes in the side walls, which are parallel to the magnetic field. There are large velocities inside the boundary layers adjacent to the thin metal side walls, but not inside the layers adjacent to the electrodes. Upstream and downstream of the electrodes, a significant fraction of the total flow leaves and enters the side-wall boundary layers, respectively. For the particular duct treated here, the fully developed side layers, which carry 38.8 percent of the total flow, are realized at a distance of three characteristic lengths from the ends of the electrodes.