We propose a new activity on verification and validation (V&V) of MHD codes presently employed by the fusion community as a predictive capability tool for liquid metal cooling applications, such as liquid metal blankets. The important steps in the development of MHD codes starting from the 1970s are outlined first and then basic MHD codes, which are currently in use by designers of liquid breeder blankets, are reviewed. A benchmark database of five problems has been proposed to cover a wide range of MHD flows from laminar fully developed to turbulent flows, which are of interest for fusion applications: (A) 2D fully developed laminar steady MHD flow, (B) 3D laminar, steady developing MHD flow in a non-uniform magnetic field, (C) quasitwo-dimensional MHD turbulent flow, (D) 3D turbulent MHD flow, and (E) MHD flow with heat transfer (buoyant convection). Finally, we introduce important details of the proposed activities, such as basic V&V rules and schedule. The main goal of the present paper is to help in establishing an efficient V&V framework and to initiate benchmarking among interested parties. The comparison results computed by the codes against analytical solutions and trusted experimental and numerical data as well as code-to-code comparisons will be presented and analyzed in companion paper/papers.

The current paper evaluates the thermal performance of immersion cooling for an Electric Vehicle (EV) battery module comprised of NCA-chemistry based cylindrical 21700 format Lithium-ion cells. Efficacy of immersion cooling in improving maximum cell temperature, cell’s temperature gradient, cell-to-cell temperature differential, and pressure drop in the module are investigated by direct comparison with a cold-plate-cooled battery module. Parametric analyses are performed at different module discharge C-rates and coolant flow rates to understand the sensitivity of each cooling strategy to important system performance parameters. The entire numerical analysis is performed using a validated 3D time-accurate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodology in STAR-CCM+. Results demonstrate that immersion cooling due its higher thermal conductance leads to a lower maximum cell temperature and lower temperature gradients within the cells at high discharge rates. However, a higher rate of heat rejection and poor thermal properties of the dielectric liquid results in a much higher temperature non-uniformity across the module. At lower discharge rates, the two cooling methods show similar thermal performance. Additionally, owing to the lower viscosity and density of the considered dielectric liquid, an immersion-cooled battery module performs significantly better than the cold-plate-cooled module in terms of both coolant pressure drop.

If a permanent magnet is located near a liquid metal flow, the magnet experiences a Lorentz force, which depends on the velocity of the flow. This effect is embodied in a noncontact flow measurement technique called Lorentz force velocimetry (LFV). Although LFV is already under way for global flow measurement in metallurgy, the possibility of using LFV for local velocity measurement has not yet been explored. The present work is devoted to a comprehensive investigation of the Lorentz force acting upon a permanent magnet near a liquid metal flow in a square duct when the size of the magnet is sufficiently small to be influenced by only parts of the fluid flow. We employ a combination of laboratory experiments in the turbulent regime, direct numerical simulations of laminar and turbulent flows using a custom-made code, and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations using a commercial code. We address three particular flow regimes, namely the kinematic regime where the back-reaction of the Lorentz force on the flow is negligible, the low-Reynolds number dynamic regime and the high-Reynolds number dynamic regime both being characterized by a significant modification of the flow by the Lorentz force. In all three regimes, the Lorentz force is characterized by a nondimensional electromagnetic drag coefficient CD, which depends on the dimensionless distance between the magnet and the duct h, the dimensionless size of the magnet d, the Reynolds number Re, and the Hartmann number Ha. We demonstrate that in the kinematic regime, CD displays a universal dependence on the distance parameter, expressed by the scaling laws CD ∼ h−2 for h ≪ 1 and CD ∼ h−7 for h ≫ 1. In the dynamic regime at low Re, the magnet acts as a magnetic obstacle and expels streamlines from its immediate vicinity. In the dynamic regime at high Re, we present experimental data on CD(Re) for 500 ≤ Re ≤ 104 and on CD(h) for 0.4 ≤ h ≤ 1 and demonstrate that they are in good agreement with numerical results obtained from RANS simulations for the same range of parameters.

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