Nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics. Progress report, July 1, 1993--June 30, 1994 (open access)

Nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics. Progress report, July 1, 1993--June 30, 1994

Work has continued to focus on resistive, viscous, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) steady states that model tokamak configurations. Recent emphasis has been on the subject of plasma rotation, and the stabilizing effects it has on the kind of MHD activity that results when current thresholds are exceeded in non-rotating configurations. The author believes that relatively superficial consequences of the effects of rotation (e.g., the {open_quotes}velocity shear layer,{close_quotes} which must result when any fluid of whatever nature is rotated in the presence of a material boundary) have been assigned causative effects that do not belong to them, in the presently-dominant perspective on the subject. Output from the author`s three-dimensional spectral-method numerical code has shown how rotation may be made to suppress helical deformations of the current channel and paired helical vortices in a supercritical magnetofluid column. A velocity {open_quotes}shear layer{close_quotes} results if and when there is wall friction. The role of ion parallel viscosity (rather than shear viscosity) in determining stability boundaries in current-carrying magnetofluids is being investigated. A lattice-Boltzmann equation method of computing three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic toroidal effects is under consideration.
Date: July 30, 1994
Creator: Montgomery, D. C.
System: The UNT Digital Library