Development and application of a nonequilibrium magnetohydrodynamics code to hypersonic flow power generation.

The time-dependent, 2½-dimensional, axisymmetric, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) solver MACH2 has been upgraded to include the effects of non-equilibrium air chemistry using the well-established reaction model developed by Park. Several validation cases are presented based on comparisons to the experimentally deduced shock stand-off distance of nitrogen flow over spheres, the shock stand-off distance of spheres fired into air in a ballistic test facility, and the electron number density on the surface of the Ram-C re-entry experiment. In addition, the magnetic induction equation has been upgraded with new verified models that compute the effects of the Hall and ion slip terms. The upgraded code is utilized to model an annular, Hall-type MHD generator that can be employed upstream of a turbojet engine for freestream conditions corresponding to Mach 5 flight at an altitude of 20km. The simulations demonstrate the feasibility of convening inlet kinetic power to storable electric power. Using ionization provided by electron-beam guns and a radial magnetic field B=3T, the generator is shown to produce a maximum of 4.8MW of electric power while reducing the total kinetic power of the flow by 31%. Optimizing the loading parameter, K*Load, across the electrodes demonstrates that the generator could produce 1.54MW of excess electric power that can be stored and used for on-board power requirements. Further, the reduction in flow kinetic power results in an increase in static pressure of 30% and a reduction in stagnation temperature of 3% at the turbojet's compressor inlet that aids the subsequent process of combustion.