Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

The Tayler instability, a current driven instability, originally known from plasma physics may appear in liquid metal batteries. We present a numerical model, implemented in OpenFOAM, able to simulate the Tayler instability in incompressible fluids. The finite volume method code, based on the PISO algorithm and enhanced by a Poisson equation for the electric potential and Biot-Savart integration to obtain the induced magnetic field is used to simulate a recent Tayler experiment. Results of field structure and growth rates of the Tayler instability fit well to the experimental findings.