MHD liquid metal flow and heat transfer between vertical coaxial cylinders under horizontal magnetic field

Direct numerical simulations are presented of MHD liquid metal flow and heat transfer in vertical annuli. Three annular gaps and four ratios of annular height to annular gap are considered. The walls of the external and internal cylinders are isothermal with the temperature of the outer cylinder being higher and, thus, buoyancy is the driving force. The results show that the fluid motion increases as the aspect ratio and the annular gap become larger. The presence of the magnetic field results to fluid deceleration and, thus, to flow stabilization. Additionally, non symmetric flow patterns develop, due to the magnetic field, resulting in differently sized normal and parallel wall layers, namely the Hartmann and the Roberts layers, respectively. For all annular gaps considered, the highest spatially averaged heat transfer rates are obtained for aspect ratios equal to 1.