The Production of High Centrifugal Fields

Abstract

High centrifugal fields were produced by spinning small solid steel spherical rotors up to their bursting speeds. The rotors were supported magnetically in a vacuum by an improved method and spun by rotating magnetic fields. The peripheral velocities at which the rotors of various sizes, made of the same (flaw free) steel and having the same shapes, exploded, were roughly the same and of the order of 10⁵ cm/sec. A centrifugal field of 2.4×10⁸ times gravity was obtained with a .795‐mm spherical rotor which was the smallest diameter tried. Calculations indicate that in some cases plastic flow probably occurred in small regions near the centers of the spherical rotors somewhat below their bursting speed.