Lattice Boltzmann Large Eddy Simulation Model of MHD

Abstract

The work of Ansumali \textit{et al.}\cite{Ansumali} is extended to Two Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in which energy is cascaded to small spatial scales and thus requires subgrid modeling. Applying large eddy simulation (LES) modeling of the macroscopic fluid equations results in the need to apply ad-hoc closure schemes. LES is applied to a suitable mesoscopic lattice Boltzmann representation from which one can recover the MHD equations in the long wavelength, long time scale Chapman-Enskog limit (i.e., the Knudsen limit). Thus on first performing filter width expansions on the lattice Boltzmann equations followed by the standard small Knudsen expansion on the filtered lattice Boltzmann system results in a closed set of MHD turbulence equations provided we enforce the physical constraint that the subgrid effects first enter the dynamics at the transport time scales. In particular, a multi-time relaxation collision operator is considered for the density distribution function and a single relaxation collision operator for the vector magnetic distribution function. The LES does not destroy the property that $\nabla \cdot \mathbf B = 0$ automatically without the need for divergence cleaning.