Numerical Investigation of magnetohydrodynamic flow through Sudden expansion pipes in Liquid Metal Blankets

In fusion liquid metal blanket, sudden expansions and sudden contractions are very common geometries. Changing of the cross-section causes 3-D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects, which will affect the flow pattern, current distribution and pressure drop. In this paper the numerical code based on OpenFOAM platform developed by University of Science and Technology of China was used to investigate and optimize the sudden expansion pipe. The code has been validated by the recommended benchmark cases including Shercliff, Hunt, ALEX experiments (rectangular duct and round pipe) and KIT experiment cases. The obtained numerical results agreed well with those of all the benchmark cases. Previous and valuable analytical and experimental works have been done by L. Buhler, et. el. Based on these works, in the present paper, further investigation of different expansion lengths between the upstream pipe and downstream pipe at high Hartmann number and Reynolds number were conducted. Besides, different expansion ratios with a specific expansion length were conducted. The numerical results showed that with the increasing of expansion length, the 3D MHD effects gradually weakened. Especially, the 3D pressure drop decreases with the increasing of expansion length. Whereas, the expansion ratio factor shows no obvious influences on the total MHD pressure drop but greatly influence the local pressure distribution. These numerical simulations can be used to evaluate the MHD flow inside the expansion and contraction pipes.