Simulations of MHD flows with moving interfaces

We report on the numerical simulation of a two-fluid magnetohydrodynamics problem arising in the industrial production of aluminium. The motion of the two non-miscible fluids is modeled through the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the Maxwell equations. Stabilized finite elements techniques and an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation (for the motion of the interface separating the two fluids) are used in the numerical simulation. With a view to justifying our strategy, details on the numerical analysis of the problem, with a special emphasis on conservation and stability properties and on the surface tension discretization, as well as results on tests cases are provided. Examples of numerical simulations of the industrial case are eventually presented.

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