Numerical Simulations of 2D Non-Stationary Real MGD Flows

MAGLIONE, LIVIO; ELASKAR, SERGIO; BRITO, HÉCTOR; DEAN, RAÚL; LIFSCHITZ, LUIS

Cancun

Congreso; Tenth Pan American Congress of Applied Mechanics - PACAM X; 2008

The study of flows in which a electrically conducting gas moves in a magnetic field isknown as magnetogasdynamics or MGD for short. Computational MGD represents one ofthe most promising interdisciplinary computational technologies for aerospace design. Atthe present, in Argentina, it is being developed an ablative magnetoplasmadynamic thruster(AMPD) as a native propulsion option for satellite and, particularly, microsatellite orbitand/or attitude control.A MGD model is generally based on the assumption that plasma can be regarded as acontinuum and thus may be characterized by relatively few macroscopic quantities. Amodel for a flow affected by electromagnetic forces includes the full set of Maxwell’sequations coupled with the Navier-Stokes equations. The real MGD equations constitute aparabolic-hyperbolic partial differential system. In addition the ideal part of the MGDequations is nonconvex and as consequence the wave structure is more complicated thanfor the Euler equations.A software engineering was developed and using structured meshes solves 2D, timedependent,viscous and resistive MGD flows. In this case, the numerical approach consistsof an approximate Riemann solver coupled with the TVD scheme proposed by Yee. Theeigensystem introduced by Powell and the normalization of the eigenvectors presented byZarachay et al. have also been used.To check accuracy, the computational code has been applied in the simulation of aRiemann problem introduced by Brio and Wu. Also results in the simulation of theHartmann flow are shown. The results obtained are in good agreement with those reportedby other authors.