A Sonic Fix for Ideal Magnetogasdynamics Equations

Abstract

A plasma thruster is being developed in Córdoba, Argentina and local researchers are developing theoretical models and scientific software to solve the magnetogasdynamics (MGD) equations. Computational MGD represents one of the most promising interdisciplinary computational technologies for aerospace design. For ideal MGD the numerical simulations are a very important tool, by reducing expensive, and sometimes unviable, experimental parametric studies. However, the numerical simulations always are limited by the ability to analyze and to solve accurately the hyperbolic non-linear differential equations system. In this work is presented a modification of the original Harten and Yee TVD scheme by incorporating a new sonic fix for the acoustic causality points using the finite volume technique. The proposed sonic fix is implemented to solve the transient, twodimensional ideal MGD equations. Two test cases were simulated: MGD Riemann problem and the Hartmann flow. The numerical results obtained using the new sonic fix have shown to reduce the oscillations and to be robust.