One possible mechanism of instability of an electrically conducting liquid in a conductive MHD device

O. A. Kukainis - A. Ya. Shishko

Institute of Physics, Latvian Academy of Sciences, Salaspils-1, LV-2169, Latvia

Abstract
The stability of a homogeneous electrically conducting liquid is analyzed, when such a liquid is enclosed in a rectangular cavity where an electric field and a magnetic field cross each other. With a small gradient of magnetic field intensity in the direction of the electromagnetic force, the two-dimensional approximation yields a system of equations relating the velocity perturoations to the perturoations of the magnetic field. It is shown that instability may occur when the gradient of magnetic field intensity and the electric current density in the cavity are related in certain ways. An exact equation is derived which describes the spectrum of two-dimensional perturoations in a long cavity.