The Effect of “Wave Breakers” on the Magnetohydrodynamic Instability in Aluminum Reduction Cells

Abstract

We report the results of the experiments on the suppression of the MHD instability in a model of the aluminum reduction cells (Pedchenko et al. in EPL 88:24001, 2009). The idea behind the study is to introduce obstacles in the liquid metal to suppress the propagation of the rolling-pad instability wave. As a result, in some configurations with obstacles, we detect lowering of the wave amplitude, reduction of its propagation speed, and rise of the main parameters’ thresholds, responsible for the instability onset.