Influence of Hall effects on characteristics of magnetohydrodynamic converging channel

Influences of Hall effects on the flow characteristics and performance of the magnetohydrodyanmic (MHD) converging channel as an MHD generator are studied numerically in the present study. The numerical algorithm used is composed of an entropy conditioned scheme for solving the non-homogeneous Navier-Stokes equations, in conjunction with an SOR method for solving the elliptic equation governing the electrical potential of the electric field. It is found that Hall effects may lead to distortions in both the flow field and electric field in the MHD converging channel. The electric current lines are distorted and induce eddy currents, which will be mitigated by Hall effects. Comparisons of parameters characterizing the performance of the MHD generator for different geometry also reveal that the Hall effects may deteriorate the performance of MHD generator, especially for converging channel.