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Liquid-metal flow in a backward elbow in the plane of a strong magnetic field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

T. J. Moon
Affiliation:
Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1063, USA
T. Q. Hua
Affiliation:
Engineering Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
J. S. Walker
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Abstract

This paper treats a liquid-metal flow through a sharp elbow connecting two constant-area, rectangular ducts with thin metal walls. There is a uniform, strong magnetic field in the plane of the ducts’ centrelines, and the velocity component normal to the magnetic field is in opposite directions upstream and downstream of the elbow. The magnetic field is sufficiently strong that inertial effects are negligible everywhere and viscous effects are confined to boundary layers and to an interior layer lying along the magnetic field lines through the inside corner of the elbow. The interior layer involves large velocities parallel to the magnetic field and carries roughly half of the flow between the upstream and downstream ducts for the case considered.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1991 Cambridge University Press

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