Experimental study of MHD effects on turbulent flow of Flibe simulant fluid in circular pipe

An investigation of MHD effects on a Flibe (Li2BeF4) simulant fluid has been conducted under the U.S.–Japan JUPITER-II collaboration program using the “FLIHY” pipe flow facility at UCLA. The present paper reports experimental results on turbulent pipe flow of an aqueous potassium hydroxide solution under magnetic field using particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. The modification of turbulence was investigated by comparison of the experimental results with a direct numerical simulation (DNS) data base. The PIV measurements at Re = 11,300 were performed with variable Hartmann numbers, and the modification of the mean flow velocity as well as turbulence reduction was observed. A flat velocity profile in the pipe center and a steep velocity gradient in the near-wall region exhibit typical characteristics of wall-bounded MHD flows. The DNS was performed approximately the same conditions and the comparison of turbulence statistics between PIV and DNS shows good agreement for up to Ha = 10.