Fractality of metal pad instability threshold in rectangular cells

DOI10.1017/JFM.2021.100MaRDI QIDQ3389005zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Gerasimos K. Politis, Jānis Priede

Publication date 7 May 2021

Published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.09975

zbMATH Keywords

magnetohydrodynamicsshallow water flows

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Magnetohydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics (76W05)

Abstract: We analyse linear stability of interfacial waves in an idealised model of an aluminium reduction cell consisting of two stably stratified liquid layers which carry a vertical electric current in a collinear external magnetic field. If the product of electric current and magnetic field exceeds a certain critical threshold depending on the cell design, the electromagnetic coupling of gravity wave modes can give rise to a self-amplifying rotating interfacial wave which is known as the metal pad instability. Using the eigenvalue perturbation method, we show that, in the inviscid limit, rectangular cells of horizontal aspect ratios $alpha=sqrtm/n$, where $m$ and $n$ are any two odd numbers, can be destabilised by an infinitesimally weak electromagnetic interaction while cells of other aspect ratios have finite instability thresholds. This fractal distribution of critical aspect ratios, which form an absolutely discontinuous dense set of points interspersed with aspect ratios with non-zero stability thresholds, is confirmed by accurate numerical solution of the linear stability problem. Although the fractality vanishes when viscous friction is taken into account, the instability threshold is smoothed out gradually and its principal structure, which is dominated by the major critical aspect ratios corresponding to moderate values of $m$ and $n$, is well-preserved up to relatively large dimensionless viscous friction coefficients $gammasim0.1$. With a small viscous friction, the most stable are cells with $alph{a}^{2}approx2.13$ which have the highest stability threshold corresponding to the electromagnetic interaction parameter $$.

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Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 49093 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 575698 (Why is no real title available?)
• Classification of instability modes in a model of aluminium reduction cells with a uniform magnetic field
• Coupling and stability of interfacial waves in liquid metal batteries
• Elementary model of internal electromagnetic pinch-type instability
• Hydromagnetic edge waves and instability in reduction cells
• Instability of MHD-modified interfacial gravity waves revisited
• Interfacial instability due to MHD mode coupling in aluminium reduction cells
• Magnetohydrodynamic stability of large scale liquid metal batteries
• Mathematical Methods for the Magnetohydrodynamics of Liquid Metals
• Perturbation theory for metal pad roll instability in cylindrical reduction cells
• Spectral methods for incompressible viscous flow
• Stability of fluid layers carrying a normal electric current
• Stability of interfacial waves in aluminium reduction cells

Cited in

(3)

• Formation of spiral waves in cylindrical containers under orbital excitation
• Perturbation theory for metal pad roll instability in cylindrical reduction cells
• Stability theory for metal pad roll in cylindrical liquid metal batteries

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