Gravitational flow of a thin film of liquid metal in a strong magnetic field

Magnetohydrodynamic effects on liquid metal film flowing along an inclined plate relating to plasma facing components

“…Normally, the formula or the law is obtained either from an empirical relationship or from theoretical analysis. To date, most researchers have directed their efforts towards obtaining a theoretical equation to predict the thickness of film flowing along a plate under the influence of a magnetic field; the corresponding equations can be found in [43]. However, these equations for the calculation of film thickness are described in an implicit scheme, unsuitable for engineering applications.…”

“…However, for cases with a gradient magnetic field, numerical simulations of liquid metal film flow show that the traveling of surface disturbance is slowed down, leading to the free surface becoming unstable [41,42]. Considering a strong poloidal magnetic field (B = 4 T) possessing normal and tangential components relative to the free surface of film flow, Platacis et al [43] suggested that we should appropriately align the substrate along the magnetic field lines to realize a liquid metal film divertor. Using both the experimental method and a theoretical approach, Shishko et al [44] investigated MHD effects on the behavior of film flow with a thickness of less than 100 µm; their results show that an increase in the magnetic field from 0 to 1 T led to a 6.09 times increase in liquid GaInSn film thickness, with a corresponding increase of 58 times for that of lithium film flows.…”

Flow of a thin liquid-metal film in a toroidal magnetic field

“…The estimated values have been calculated using the properties of liquid lithium listed in table 1, along with a typical divertor length-scale L = 1 m and film thickness H = 0.1 mm, based on calculations from the fusion literature (Ono et al 2017) that have been established experimentally (Platacis et al 2014). We also take a typical inclination angle θ = 0.1 radians and applied magnetic field strength B 0 = 1 T. For the moment, we neglect terms of order 2 and Rm (both of which are certainly very small) to get a leading-order lubrication model.…”

“…Thin-film free-surface hydrodynamics and stability has a rich and developed literature (Craster & Matar 2009;Oron et al 1997;Myers 1998). Free-surface MHD experiments with liquid metal have been performed since the beginnings of MHD research (Nornberg et al 2008;Alpher et al 1960;Platacis et al 2014) but precise measurements are difficult to obtain. Free-surface MHD flows have also been modelled (see Morley & Abdou 1995;Morley & Abdou 1997;Morley & Roberts 1996;Giannakis et al 2009b, and references within) and simulated numerically (Morley et al 2004;Miloshevsky & Hassanein 2010;Gao et al , 2003Giannakis et al 2009a); however there is more ground to cover.…”