International Team Determines Critical Safety Parameter Ranges for Magnetic Liquid Cooling Systems

South Ural State University (SUSU) recently announced that researchers from its Polytechnic Institute, in collaboration with colleagues from Moscow and Baghdad, have determined the safe and unsafe ranges of the Hartmann number and Brinkman number in magnetic liquid cooling systems. Based on this, they developed a computer program to optimize the operation of high-power heat exchangers in devices such as supercomputers and nuclear reactors.

According to the introduction, this research focuses on two key parameters in magnetohydrodynamics: the Hartmann number characterizes the resistance exerted by a magnetic field on fluid motion, while the Brinkman number reflects the internal heat generated by the fluid due to viscous effects and electrical resistance. The researchers pointed out that under specific conditions, a strong magnetic field does not necessarily cause the fluid to heat up. When the fluid nearly stops flowing and frictional heating diminishes, the magnetic field may instead cause the fluid temperature to decrease.

The research team developed a simulation program using Python and performed calculations for two types of structures: circular pipes and rectangular channels. The results showed that in rectangular channels, the magnetic braking effect is stronger due to the folding of the Hartmann layer; under identical conditions, the heat dissipation efficiency of circular pipes is approximately 20% to 30% higher than that of rectangular channels.

The researchers also provided safe parameter ranges for different structures. For rectangular channels, the Hartmann number should be controlled between 8 and 12, and the Brinkman number between 0.05 and 0.3; for circular pipes, the suitable Hartmann number range is 10 to 15, and the suitable Brinkman number range is 0.1 to 0.4.

The study also showed that when the Brinkman number exceeds 0.5, heat generation in the system begins to grow exponentially; when the Brinkman number exceeds 2, the pipe wall may fail due to overheating. South Ural State University stated that the results can also be applied to the design of cooling channels in metallurgical equipment and modern energy systems.