Caroline Nore

Sloshing instability and electrolyte layer rupture in liquid metal batteries

Liquid metal batteries (LMBs) are discussed today as a cheap grid scale energy storage, as required for the deployment of fluctuating renewable energies. Built as stable density stratification of two liquid metals separated by a thin molten salt layer, LMBs are susceptible to short-circuit by fluid flows. Using direct numerical simulation, we study a sloshing long wave interface instability in cylindrical cells, which is already known from aluminium reduction cells. After characterising the instability mechanism, we investigate the influence of cell current, layer thickness, density, viscosity, conductivity and magnetic background field. Finally we study the shape of the interface and give a dimensionless parameter for the onset of sloshing as well as for the short-circuit.

Direct numerical simulation of the axial dipolar dynamo in the Von Kármán Sodium experiment

For the first time, a direct numerical simulation of the incompressible, fully nonlinear, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations for the Von Karman Sodium (VKS) experiment is presented with the two counter-rotating impellers realistically represented. Dynamo thresholds are obtained for various magnetic permeabilities of the impellers and it is observed that the threshold decreases as the magnetic permeability increases. Hydrodynamic results compare well with experimental data in the same range of kinetic Reynolds numbers: at small impeller rotation frequency, the flow is steady; at larger frequency, the fluctuating flow is characterized by small scales and helical vortices localized between the blades. MHD computations show that two distinct magnetic families compete at small kinetic Reynolds number and these two families merge at larger kinetic Reynolds number. In both cases, using ferromagnetic material for the impellers decreases the dynamo threshold and enhances the axisymmetric component of the magnetic field: the resulting dynamo is a mostly axisymmetric axial dipole with an azimuthal component concentrated in the impellers as observed in the VKS experiment.

Role of boundary conditions in helicoidal flow collimation: Consequences for the von Kármán sodium dynamo experiment.

We present hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of liquid sodium flow with the PLUTO compressible MHD code to investigate influence of magnetic boundary conditions on the collimation of helicoidal motions. We use a simplified cartesian geometry to represent the flow dynamics in the vicinity of one cavity of a multiblades impeller inspired by those used in the Von-Kármán-sodium (VKS) experiment. We show that the impinging of the large-scale flow upon the impeller generates a coherent helicoidal vortex inside the blades, located at a distance from the upstream blade piloted by the incident angle of the flow. This vortex collimates any existing magnetic field lines leading to an enhancement of the radial magnetic field that is stronger for ferromagnetic than for conducting blades. The induced magnetic field modifies locally the velocity fluctuations, resulting in an enhanced helicity. This process possibly explains why dynamo action is more easily triggered in the VKS experiment when using soft iron impellers.

Two spinning ways for precession dynamo.

It is numerically demonstrated by means of a magnetohydrodynamic code that precession can trigger dynamo action in a cylindrical container. Fixing the angle between the spin and the precession axis to be 1/2π, two limit configurations of the spinning axis are explored: either the symmetry axis of the cylinder is parallel to the spin axis (this configuration is henceforth referred to as the axial spin case), or it is perpendicular to the spin axis (this configuration is referred to as the equatorial spin case). In both cases, the centro-symmetry of the flow breaks when the kinetic Reynolds number increases. Equatorial spinning is found to be more efficient in breaking the centro-symmetry of the flow. In both cases, the average flow in the reference frame of the mantle converges to a counter-rotation with respect to the spin axis as the Reynolds number grows. We find a scaling law for the average kinetic energy in term of the Reynolds number in the axial spin case. In the equatorial spin case, the unsteady asymmetric flow is shown to be capable of sustaining dynamo action in the linear and nonlinear regimes. The magnetic field is mainly dipolar in the equatorial spin case, while it is is mainly quadrupolar in the axial spin case.

Study of Magnetoconvection Impact on a Coil Cooling by Ferrofluid with a Spectral/Finite-Element Method

The benefit of magnetoconvection for transformer cooling by ferrofluid is numerically studied. A code combining spectral and finite-element methods is applied on a solenoid system. Magnetostatic, Navier–Stokes, and energy equations are solved simultaneously. A vegetable oil seeded with magnetite nanoparticles at a volume fraction of 10% is considered. The magnetization of the ferrofluid is a function of temperature through an approximation of the classical Langevin’s law. Magnetic and temperature fields are used to update the magnetic action, modeled by the Kelvin force, on the ferrofluid momentum at each time step. Numerical results for regular oil are consistent with experimental temperature data obtained for pure vegetable oil cooling. Numerical results for ferrofluid show that the magnetoconvection modifies the flow convection pattern and speed. The temperature increase in the coil is consequently reduced by about 9.4% with ferrofluid cooling.

Experimental realization of dynamo action: present status and prospects

In the last decades, the experimental study of dynamo action has made great progress. However, after the dynamo experiments in Karlsruhe and Riga, the von-Karman-Sodium (VKS) dynamo is only the third facility that has been able to demonstrate fluid flow driven self-generation of magnetic fields in a laboratory experiment. Further progress in the experimental examination of dynamo action is expected from the planned precession driven dynamo experiment that will be designed in the framework of the liquid sodium facility DRESDYN (DREsden Sodium facility for DYNamo and thermohydraulic studies). nIn this paper, we briefly present numerical models of the VKS dynamo that demonstrate the close relation between the axisymmetric field observed in that experiment and the soft iron material used for the flow driving impellers. We further show recent results of preparatory water experiments and design studies related to the precession dynamo and delineate the scientific prospects for the final set-up.