Symmetry-preserving discretisation methods for magnetohydrodynamics

Summary

In this work, the symmetry-preserving method [1, 2, 3] is extended to include magnetohydrodynamic effects, using the collocated grid arrangement of Ni et al. [4, 5]. The electromagnetic part is solved explicitly using the induction-less approximation and an electric potential Poisson equation. The proposed solver is implemented in OpenFOAM and tested for accuracy and stability, and compared to the method of Ni et al. [4, 5]. A new benchmark case using a Taylor-Green vortex in a transverse magnetic field is used, for which kinetic energy budget terms are compared to the analytical solutions. Finally, Hunt's case is used to compare flow profiles to the analytical solutions. Influence of the spatial discretisation on accuracy and stability is also examined by solving both cases on meshes with variable degrees of distortion. The symmetry-preserving method showed accuracy on Cartesian meshes and stability even on extremely distorted meshes, whereas the method of Ni et al. [4, 5] showed less accurate conservation of current density and was not able to produce stable solutions on the extremely distorted meshes.

Abstract

Full Paper