Electromagnetically driven convection suitable for mass transfer enhancement in liquid metal batteries.
Liquid metal batteries (LMBs) were recently proposed as cheap large scale energy storage. Such devices are urgently required for balancing highly fluctuating renewable energy sources. During discharge, intermetallic phases tend to form in the cathode of LMBs. These do not only limit the up-scalability, but also the efficiency of the cells. Generating a mild fluid flow in the fully liquid cell will smoothen concentration gradients and minimise the formation of intermetallics. In this context we study electro-vortex flow numerically. We simulate a recent LMB related experiment and discuss how the feeding lines to the cell can be optimised to enhance mass transfer. The Lorentz forces have to overcome the stable thermal stratification in the cathode of the cell; we show that thermal effects may reduce electro-vortex flow velocities considerable. Finally, we study the influence of the Earth magnetic field on the flow.
Publisher URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/1802.02214
DOI: arXiv:1802.02214v1
Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.
Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.