Observation of a Free-Shercliff-Layer Instability in Cylindrical Geometry
Abstract
We report on observations of a free-Shercliff-layer instability in a Taylor-Couette experiment using a liquid metal over a wide range of Reynolds numbers, . The free Shercliff layer is formed by imposing a sufficiently strong axial magnetic field across a pair of differentially rotating axial endcap rings. This layer is destabilized by a hydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz-type instability, characterized by velocity fluctuations in the plane. The instability appears with an Elsasser number above unity, and saturates with an azimuthal mode number which increases with the Elsasser number. Measurements of the structure agree well with 2D global linear mode analyses and 3D global nonlinear simulations. These observations have implications for a range of rotating MHD systems in which similar shear layers may be produced.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1204.6339,
title = {Observation of a Free-Shercliff-Layer Instability in Cylindrical Geometry},
author = {Austin Roach and Erik Spence and Christophe Gissinger and Eric Edlund and Peter Sloboda and Jeremy Goodman and Hantao Ji},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.6339},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
5 pages, 4 figures