Metal pad instability in Liquid Metal Batteries

Abstract

The Liquid Metal Battery (LMB) is a new promising concept of a device for large-scale stationary energy storage. The ongoing development and commercialization of the LMB faces the problem of disruptions of operation caused by the magneto-hydrodynamic instabilities. One of the instabilities, the metal pad instability, is modeled and analyzed in the thesis work. The numerical model is based on the open-source CFD software OpenFOAM, modified to include electromagnetic effects and address the numerical aspects related to strong variations of fluid parameters. The model is applied to investigate the effects of the thickness of electrolyte, strength of magnetic field, and the metal and electrolyte densities on the instability. One conclusion of the study is that the metal pad instability can be simulated using properly modified general-purpose CFD software. Another conclusion is that the instability is the potentially serious problem that has to be addressed in the LMB design.