An extensive numerical benchmark of the various magnetohydrodynamic flows

Abstract

There is a continuous need for an updated series of numerical benchmarks dealing with various aspects of the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) phenomena (i.e. interactions of the flow of an electrically conducting fluid and an externally imposed magnetic field). The focus of the present study is numerical magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) where we have performed an extensive series of simulations for generic configurations, including: (i) a laminar conjugate MHD flow in a duct with varied electrical conductivity of the walls, (ii) a back-step flow, (iii) a multiphase cavity flow, (iv) a rising bubble in liquid metal and (v) a turbulent conjugate MHD flow in a duct with varied electrical conductivity of surrounding walls. All considered benchmark situations are for the one-way coupled MHD approach, where the induced magnetic field is negligible. The governing equations describing the one-way coupled MHD phenomena are numerically implemented in the open-source code OpenFOAM. The novel elements of the numerical algorithm include fully-conservative forms of the discretized Lorentz force in the momentum equation and divergence-free current density, the conjugate MHD (coupling of the wall/fluid domains), the multi-phase MHD, and, finally, the MHD turbulence. The multi-phase phenomena are simulated with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach, whereas the MHD turbulence is simulated with the dynamic Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) method. For all considered benchmark cases, a very good agreement is obtained with available analytical solutions and other numerical results in the literature. The presented extensive numerical benchmarks are expected to be potentially useful for developers of the numerical codes used to simulate various types of the complex MHD phenomena.