A single-fluid model for shock formation in MHD shock tubes
- 1 May 1967
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Journal of Plasma Physics
- Vol. 1 (2), 193-207
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022377800003214
Abstract
A simple single-fluid model is presented which accounts for the behaviour of MHD shock producing devices in which the shock and the driving current sheet are unseparated. By means of both characteristic and similarity solutions, it is shown that unusual plasma behaviour is a simple consequence of the fluid equations of motion. The important parameters in determining the performance of MilD shock tubes are the width of the current sheet at breakdown (related to the magnetic Reynolds number) and the current sheet Mach number with respect to the gas at rest. It is shown that, under many conditions, separation is more likely to be achieved with a decrease, rather than an increase, in current sheet speed. Lowering the Mach number is more influential in causing the shock to form at the front of the current sheet than raising the magnetic Reynolds number.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strong shock wavesPhysics Today, 1965
- Magnetically Driven Cylindrical Shock WavesPhysics of Fluids, 1961
- On Cylindrical Magnetohydrodynamic Shock WavesPhysics of Fluids, 1961
- The structure of magneto-hydrodynamic shock wavesProceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 1955