Subcritical convection in an internally heated layer

Xiang, Linyan; Zikanov, Oleg

doi:10.1103/physrevfluids.2.063501

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The electrolyte itself, which experiences substantial bulk heating during battery charge and discharge, is subject to thermal convection, especially in its upper half [109,110]. One simulation of an internally-heated electrolyte layer showed it to be characterized by small, round, descending plumes [111]. Experiments have raised concern that thermal convection could bring intermetallic materials from the electrolyte to contaminate the negative electrode [112].…”

Section: Convection In Liquid Metal Batteriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Metal Batteries

Kelley

Weier

2018

Applied Mechanics Reviews

101

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The design and performance of liquid metal batteries, a new technology for grid-scale energy storage, depend on fluid mechanics because the battery electrodes and electrolytes are entirely liquid. Here we review prior and current research on the fluid mechanics of liquid metal batteries, pointing out opportunities for future studies. Because the technology in its present form is just a few years old, only a small number of publications have so far considered liquid metal batteries specifically. We hope to encourage collaboration and conversation by referencing as many of those publications as possible here. Much can also be learned by linking to extensive prior literature considering phenomena observed or expected in liquid metal batteries, including thermal convection, magnetoconvection, Marangoni flow, interface instabilities, the Tayler instability, and electro-vortex flow. We focus on phenomena, materials, length scales, and current densities relevant to the liquid metal battery designs currently being commercialized. We try to point out breakthroughs that could lead to design improvements or make new mechanisms important.The story of fluid mechanics research in liquid metal batteries (LMBs) begins with one very important application: grid-scale storage. Electrical grids have almost no energy storage capacity, and adding storage will make them more robust and more resilient even as they incorporate increasing amounts of intermittent and unpredictable wind and solar generation. Liquid metal batteries have unique advantages as a grid-scale storage technology, but their uniqueness also means that designers must consider chemical and physical mechanisms -including fluid mechanisms -that are relevant to few other battery technologies, and in many cases not yet well-understood. We will review the fluid mechanics of liquid metal batteries, focusing on studies undertaken with that technology in mind, and also drawing extensively from prior work considering similar mechanisms in other contexts. In the interest of promoting dialogue across this new field, we have endeavored to include the work of many different researchers, though inevitably some will have eluded our search, and we ask for the reader's sympathy for regrettable omissions. Our story will be guided by technological application, focusing on mechanisms most relevant to liquid metal batteries as built for grid-scale storage. We will consider electrochemistry and theoretical fluid mechanics only briefly because excellent reviews of both topics are already available in the literature. In §1 below we provide an overview and brief introduction to liquid metal batteries, motivated by the present state of worldwide electrical grids, including the various types of liquid metal batteries that have been developed. We consider the history of liquid metal batteries in more detail in §2, connecting to the thermally regenerative electrochemical cells developed in the middle of the twentieth century. Continuing, we consider the fluid mechanisms that are most relevant to ...

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Section: Convection In Liquid Metal Batteriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Metal Batteries

Kelley

Weier

2018

Applied Mechanics Reviews

101

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“…Several mechanisms of instability have been identified and analyzed so far including the Tayler instability [20,16,26,7], the thermal convection caused by the volumetric Joule heating of the electrolyte [18,27] or by bottom heating [10], and the rolling pad instability [29,24,3,8]. We should also mention the electrovortex effect, which may become a significant factor under certain conditions [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shallow water modeling of rolling pad instability in liquid metal batteries

Zikanov

2018

Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn.

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Magnetohydrodynamically induced interface instability in liquid metal batteries is analyzed. The batteries are represented by a simplified system in the form of a rectangular cell, in which strong vertical electric current flows through three horizontal layers: the layer of a heavy metal at the bottom, the layer of a light metal at the top, and the layer of electrolyte in the middle. A new two-dimensional nonlinear model based on the conservative shallow water approximation is derived and utilized in a numerical study. It is found that in the case of small density difference between the electrolyte and one of the metals, the instability closely resembles the rolling pad instability observed earlier in the aluminum reduction cells. When the two electrolyte-metal density differences are comparable, the dynamics of unstable systems is more complex and characterized by interaction between two nearly symmetric or antisymmetric interfacial waves.

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“…One more example is the formation of Pluto's polygonal terrain, which is caused not only by convection of Rayleigh‐Bénard type (McKinnon et al., 2016; Trowbridge et al., 2016), but also by internally heated convection (IHC) (Vilella & Deschamps, 2017). And, of course, IHC is relevant in many engineering applications, for example, liquid‐metal batteries (Kim et al., 2013; Xiang & Zikanov, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling in Internally Heated Convection: A Unifying Theory

Wang

Lohse

Shishkina

2021

Geophysical Research Letters

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We offer a unifying theory for turbulent, purely internally heated convection, generalizing the unifying theories of Grossmann and Lohse (2000, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112099007545; 2001, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3316) for Rayleigh‐Bénard turbulence and of Shishkina et al. (2016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL067003) for turbulent horizontal convection, which are both based on the splitting of the kinetic and thermal dissipation rates in respective boundary and bulk contributions. We obtain the mean temperature of the system and the Reynolds number (which are the response parameters) as function of the control parameters, namely the internal thermal driving strength (called, when nondimensionalized, the Rayleigh‐Roberts number) and the Prandtl number. The results of the theory are consistent with our direct numerical simulations of the Boussinesq equations.

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Subcritical convection in an internally heated layer

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Metal Batteries

Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Metal Batteries

Shallow water modeling of rolling pad instability in liquid metal batteries

Scaling in Internally Heated Convection: A Unifying Theory

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