Analysis of magnetohydrodynamic flow in linear induction EM pump

Numerical analysis is performed for magnetic and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow fields in linear induction type electromagnetic (EM) pump. A finite volume method is applied to solve magnetic field governing equations and the Navier-Stokes equations. Vector and scalar potential methods are adopted to obtain the electric and magnetic fields and the resulting Lorentz force in solving Maxwell equations. The magnetic field and velocity distributions are found to be influenced by the phase of applied electric current. Computational results indicate that the magnetic flux distribution with changing phase of input electric current is characterized by pairs of counter-rotating closed loops. The velocity distributions are affected by the intensity of Lorentz force. The governing equations for the magnetic and flow fields are only semi-coupled in this study, therefore, further study with fully-coupled governing equations are required. (authors)