On the electric potential induced by a homogeneous magnetic field in a turbulent pipe flow (Q1303700)

The authors study the turbulent pipe flow of a weakly electrically conducting fluid in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field perpendicular to the flow. Special attention is paid to the fact that this situation describes the flow in an electric induction flowmeter. Thus, the Hartmann number is small, the modification of the flow caused by Lorentz force is negligible, and only spatially and temporally varying electric potential results in this situation. The magnitude of the potential difference across the pipe is proportional to the flow rate. The authors compute the flow and electric potential by applying a numerical approach called large-eddy simulation (LES). The numerical and experimental results are in good agreement, and the fluctuations in electric potential due to turbulence are small compated to the velocity fluctuations. It is concluded that LES provides a good method for accurate computations of electrical pipe flows.