Magnetohydrodynamic rotation of a conducting liquid in a rotationally symmetrical electromagnetic field

A. B. Kapusta - I. B. Nosovitskaya - P. A. Sukhoruchko

Abstract
For small magnetic Reynolds numbers, the article considers the problem of the one-dimensional motion of a conducting liquid in an infinitely long cylindrical vessel with a round cross section, under the effect of a rotationally symmetrical electromagnetic field set up by the superposition of the field of a cylindrical conductor with a current and the magnetic fields of external conductors having rotational symmetry of the second order. The Galerkin method is used to solve the equation for the azimuthal component of the velocity. Five terms of the expansion were used to find an expression for the azimuthal velocity. The results of computer calculations were used to plot curves for the distribution of the azimuthal velocity over the radius of the vessel for different values of the Hartmann number and the magnetic Reynolds number. The article describes an experiment on measurement of the profiles of the azimuthal velocity over the radius with different values of the induction of the magnetic field in two variants of the unit. Experimental and theoretical data are compared; good agreement between them is established. The results obtained are evaluated.