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access icon free Numerical investigation of the effects of magnetic field and fluid electrical conductivity on the performance of marine magnetohydrodynamic motors

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology
Received 29/11/2017, Accepted 03/05/2018, Revised 21/04/2018, Published 10/05/2018

A magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) thruster is a type of electric motors which does not have mechanical moving parts and directly converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. In this study, the effect of magnetic field intensity and seawater electrical conductivity on the performance of a marine MHD thruster model is investigated using fully three-dimensional numerical simulations. For the first time, all electric, magnetic and fluid flow fields are considered in three dimensions. The effects of seawater electrolysis and end loss are taken into account in all simulations and a simple analytical model is developed to verify the numerical results. It is shown that increasing the magnetic field intensity or the electrical conductivity of the working fluid decreases the electrochemical and ohmic losses of the thruster at a specific velocity. Therefore, a higher efficiency can be achieved at higher magnetic field strengths and higher seawater electrical conductivities. Also, it is revealed the end loss of the channel increases with an increase in the electrical conductivity of the working fluid and decreases with an increase in the magnetic field intensity.

Inspec keywords: magnetohydrodynamics; seawater; plasma magnetohydrodynamics; magnetic fields; numerical analysis; electrical conductivity; electrolysis

Other keywords: higher magnetic field strengths; mechanical moving parts; electric motors; numerical results; magnetic field intensity; fluid electrical conductivity; working fluid; numerical investigation; electric fluid flow fields; directly converts electrical energy; marine magnetohydrodynamic motors; thruster model; end loss; mechanical energy; three-dimensional numerical simulations; magnetohydrodynamic thruster; magnetic fluid flow fields; higher seawater electrical conductivities; seawater electrical conductivity

Subjects: Electrochemistry and electrophoresis; Numerical approximation and analysis; General fluid dynamics theory, simulation and other computational methods; Applied fluid mechanics

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