Spectral Element Simulation of Liquid Metal Magnetohydrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectral-element formulation for incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) integrated into the Nek5000/RS code, enabling large-scale turbulence simulations involving liquid metals with magnetic fields.

Contribution

It develops and verifies a spectral-element-based MHD formulation within an open-source code, supporting magnetic fields in surrounding solid domains for turbulence modeling.

Findings

Successful implementation of MHD in Nek5000/RS

Verification through steady-state and transient problems

Foundation for large-scale turbulence simulations with liquid metals

Abstract

A spectral-element-based formulation of incompressible MHD is presented in the context of the open-source fluid-thermal code, Nek5000/RS. The formulation supports magnetic fields in a solid domain that surrounds the fluid domain. Several steady-state and time-transient model problems are presented as part of the code verification process. Nek5000/RS is designed for large-scale turbulence simulations, which will be the next step with this new MHD capability.