The influence of an external DC magnetic field on the behaviour of bubble driven liquid metal flows

Bubble driven flows have found wide applications in industrial technologies. In metallurgical processes gas bubbles are injected into a bulk liquid metal to drive the liquid into motion, to homogenize the physical and chemical properties of the melt or to refine the melt. For such gas-liquid metal two-phase flows, external magnetic fields provide a possibility to control the bubble motion in a contactless way.
Compared to the numerous experimental studies on the movement of bubbles in transparent liquids , especially in water, the number of publications dealing with gas bubbles rising in liquid metals is comparatively small. The shortage of suitable measuring techniques can be considered as one reason for the slow progress in the investigations of gas-liquid metal flows. Powerful optical methods are obviously not available for measurements in liquid metals. The majority of measurements in liquid metal two-phase flows published until now was obtained using local conductivity probes, hot wire anemometer or optical fiber probes to determine quantities such as void fraction, bubble and liquid velocity or the bubble size. However, measurements with any local probe disturb the flow in a significant way, especially if the structures to be investigated reach dimensions comparable to the probes. In the case of opaque liquids the application of acoustic or ultrasonic sensors offers a possibility to get information about the flow structure and bubble quantities. We applied the Ultrasound Doppler Velocimetry (UDV) for measurements of the velocity structure in liquid metal bubbly flows. Because of the ability to work non-invasively in opaque fluids and to deliver complete velocity profiles in real time it is very attractive for liquid metal applications.
In our experiments we investigated the consequence of an application of a DC magnetic field on both the bubble and the liquid velocity. The motion of single argon bubbles rising in GaInSn were analyzed in terms of the terminal velocity, the drag coefficient, the oscillation frequency of the bubble velocity and the Strouhal number. Because the gas bubble is electrically non-conducting, it does not experience the effect of the electromagnetic force directly. However, the bubble behaviour is influenced by the magnetically induced modifications in the liquid flow structure around the bubble. The measurements reveal a distinct effect of the magnetic field on the bubble velocity as well as the bubble wake. The magnetic field application leads to a mitigation of the horizontal components of the bubble velocity resulting in a more rectilinear bubble path. A restructuring of the entire flow field can be observed if a bubble plume is exposed to a DC magnetic field. As a result of the interaction between magnetic field and liquid flow electric currents were induced inside the liquid causing a damping of the flow by Joule dissipation. However, a characteristic feature of the electromagnetic dissipation is the anisotropy. Thus, the application of a transverse field leads not only to a general damping of the flow, but also favours the occurrence of vortices aligned parallel to the magnetic field direction.