The Effects of Channel Size on the Ionization Instability in MHD Generators,

Abstract

An experimental and theoretical study of the ionization instability in nonequilibrium, continuous-electrode MHD generators is presented. A linear-perturbation analysis was performed on a set of equations describing the free electrons and consisting of Ohm's law, the electron energy equation, the Saha equation, Maxwell's relations, and the boundary conditions suitable for continuous electrodes. Essential to the analysis is the retention of the radiation and heat conduction terms of the energy equation. The inclusion of the boundary conditions and the wavelength dependent terms (radiation and conduction) in the energy equation allow the prediction of the critical Hall parameter for various modes of the instability and the prediction of the wavelength having the largest growth rate. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1971
Accession Number
AD0734786

Entities

People

  • Robert Michael Evans

Organizations

  • Stanford University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundaries
  • Corpuscular Radiation
  • Electrodes
  • Electron Energy
  • Electrons
  • Energy
  • Equations
  • Free Electrons
  • Generators
  • Instability
  • Ionization
  • Ionizing Radiation
  • Nuclear Radiation
  • Radiation

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics