Magnetorotational Instability in a Rotating Liquid Metal Annulus

Ji, Hantao ; Goodman, Jeremy ; Kageyama, Akira

Princeton University. Plasma Physics Laboratory.

关键词: Gallium;    Liquid Metals;    Couette Flow;    Accretion Disks;    Instability;   

DOI  :  10.2172/780617
RP-ID  :  PPPL-3548
RP-ID  :  AC02-76CH03073
RP-ID  :  780617

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Although the magnetorotational instability (MRI) has been widely accepted as a powerful accretion mechanism in magnetized accretion disks, it has not been realized in the laboratory. The possibility of studying MRI in a rotating liquid-metal annulus (Couette flow) is explored by local and global stability analysis and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. Stability diagrams are drawn in dimensionless parameters, and also in terms of the angular velocities at the inner and outer cylinders. It is shown that MRI can be triggered in a moderately rapidly rotating table-top apparatus, using easy-to-handle metals such as gallium. Practical issues of this proposed experiment are discussed.