Liquid metal batteries (LMBs) are discussed today as a cheap grid scale energy storage, as required for the deployment of fluctuating renewable energies. Built as stable density stratification of two liquid metals separated by a thin molten salt layer, LMBs are susceptible to short-circuit by fluid flows. Using direct numerical simulation, we study a sloshing long wave interface instability in cylindrical cells, which is already known from aluminium reduction cells. After characterising the instability mechanism, we investigate the influence of cell current, layer thickness, density, viscosity, conductivity and magnetic background field. Finally we study the shape of the interface and give a dimensionless parameter for the onset of sloshing as well as for the short-circuit.

The Tayler instability (TI) is a kink-type flow instability which occurs when the electrical current through a conducting fluid exceeds a certain critical value. Originally studied in the astrophysical context, the instability was recently discussed as a possible limiting factor for the upward scalability of liquid metal batteries. In this paper, we continue our efforts to simulate this instability for liquid metals within the framework of an integro-differential equation approach. The original solver is enhanced by multi-domain support with Dirichlet-Neumann partitioning for the static boundaries. Particular focus is laid on the detailed influence of the axial electrical boundary conditions on the characteristic features of the Tayler instability and, second, on the occurrence of electro-vortex flows and their relevance for liquid metal batteries. Electro-vortex flows might pose a larger risk to the integrity of the battery than the TI.

We investigate the coupling dynamics of interfacial waves in liquid metal batteries and its effects on the battery’s operation safety. Similar to aluminium reduction cells, liquid metal batteries can be highly susceptible to magnetohydrodynamically exited interfacial instabilities. The resulting waves are capable of provoking short-circuits. Owing to the presence of two metal-electrolyte interfaces that may step into resonance, the wave dynamics in liquid metal batteries is particularly complex. In the first part of this paper, we present a potential flow analysis of coupled gravity–capillary interfacial waves. While we are focusing here on liquid metal batteries with circular cross-section, the theory is applicable to arbitrary stably stratified three-layer systems. Analytical expressions for the amplitude ratio and the wave frequencies are derived. It is shown that the wave coupling can be completely described by two independent dimensionless parameters. We further provide a decoupling criterion that suggests that wave coupling will be present in most future liquid metal batteries. In the second part, the theory is validated by comparing it with multiphase direct numerical simulations. An accompanying parameter study is conducted to analyse the system stability for interfaces coupled to varying degrees. Three different coupling regimes are identified involving characteristic coupling dynamics. For strongly coupled interfaces we observe novel instabilities that may have beneficial effects on the operational safety.