Hall effects in three-dimensional MHD generator

A numerical procedure for analyzing the MHD flows in the MHD generator of the bypass scramjet engine was developed in the present study by applying a five-equation model associated with non-ideal MHD flows at low magnetic Reynolds number. In the numerical procedure, an entropy condition scheme was applied for solving the non-homogeneous Navier-Stokes equations and an SOR method for solving the elliptic equation governed the electrical potential. The Hall effects on the MHD flow in the MHD generator were studied numerically. E-beams were shown as the ionizer to provide the effective and stable conductivity in the MHD flows. The numerical results indicated that the Hall effects might make the distortions on the flow and electric fields in the MHD generator to induce unstable secondary flow, and non-uniform Joule heating. In addition, The performance parameters of the MHD generator were obtained numerically to reveal that the Hall effects may deteriorate the performance of MHD generator.