Numerical simulation of electrovortex flows in cylindrical fluid layers and liquid metal batteries

We use the multiphase magnetohydrodynamic code SFEMaNS to study the generation of electrovortex flows in liquid metal batteries. We first reproduce some well known results in a single-phase liquid metal column and then we characterize the electrovortex flow in layered multiphase fluid systems. A simple energy density balance argument accurately estimates the typical interface deformation caused by the electrovortex flow. When applied to Mg-Sb liquid metal batteries, we find that the electrovortex flows may have the capacity to cause short-circuits even in moderate size batteries with radii in the range [10, 20] cm.