The ordering effect of a horizontal magnetic field on liquid metal natural convective flow and its influence on heat transfer

Abstract

Two experiments are presented where a horizontal magnetic field is imposed to a liquid metal buoyant flow. The non-isotropic character of the electromagnetic forces gives rise to the transition of three-dimensional convective vortex structures into increasingly two-dimensional ones in the sense that vortex axes become aligned with the direction of the applied magnetic field. The reduced non-linearities of local non-isotropic flow cause the formation of large-scale coherent structures which exhibit much simpler temporal dynamics and higher convective heat transport than under ordinary hydrodynamic (OHD) conditions.