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The Website of the Magnetohydrodynamics Group

The group has broad interests in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and other coupled problems of continuum mechanics and electromagnetism. Numerical methods and various analytical techniques (with particular emphasis on asymptotic methods and wave theory) are employed to study both fundamental and applied problems in the areas of MHD, magnetothermoelasticity, exploding wires, etc. In the field of MHD we are interested in duct flows, free surface flows, buoyant and thermocapillary convection and flows around obstacles. Industrial applications include aluminium reduction cells, liquid metal blankets and divertors for fusion reactors, semiconductor crystal growth, electromagnetic levitation, casting, etc. The phenomenon of exploding wires is another area of active research. It involves the study of coupled elasto-plastic, thermal, free-surface, phase transition, electrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects.

Research Topics

• Magnetohydrodynamics
  • high magnetic fields
  • duct flows
  • free surface flows
  • thermocapillary and buoyant convection
  • instabilities and waves
  • 2D, quasi-2D, and 3D turbulence
  • magnetorotational instability
  • electromagnetic levitation
  • flows around bodies
• Exploding wires
  • solid-state fragmentation by pulsed currents
  • coupled phenomena
  • phase transition and instabilities
• Heat and mass transfer
  • solute segregation in converging flows
  • asymptotic boundary layer solutions
• Applications
  • fusion reactor blankets and divertors
  • aluminium reduction cells
  • semiconductor crystal growth
  • electromagnetic levitation melting
  • electromagnetic processing of materials
  • electromagnetic casting

Collaboration

• Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Germany)
• Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany)
• TU-Ilmenau (Germany)
• EPM-MADYLAM (France)
• Argonne National Laboratory (USA)
• University of Oxford (UK)
• University of Warwick (UK)
• University of Leeds (UK)
• University of Reading (UK)
• Institute of Physics, University of Latvia (Latvia)
• University of Kyoto (Japan)

International programs

• European Fusion Energy Program
• US Fusion Energy Program
• EU COST Action P17 "Electromagnetic Processing of Materials"
• EU COST Action P6 "Magnetofluiddynamics"