Abstract
Properties of flow field with and without the MHD interaction in a disk closed cycle MHD generator and the effect of back pressure on the performance of the generator are discussed by performing two-dimensional numerical simulations. Without the MHD interaction, for sufficiently low back pressures, an isentropic flow is realized throughout the channel except for the boundary layers. For high back pressures as observed in experiments, pseudo shock waves arise in the channel. The shock system is attached to one wall, and on the other wall a large separation region is observed. The MHD interaction makes the flow field tend to be symmetric. Higher back pressures result in the low Hall parameter and low gas velocity, as a result, the generator performance tends to be low due to the low electro-motive force.
