Laboratory Experiments with Supersonic Radiatively Cooled Jets: Jet Deflection via Crosswinds and Magnetic Tower Outflows

Journal Article · Fri Apr 07 04:00:00 EDT 2006 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2195223· OSTI ID:20798476

Lebedev, S V; Ampleford, D; Bland, S N; Bott, S C; Chittenden, J P; Hall, G; Rapley, J ^[1]; Ciardi, A ^[2]; Frank, A; Blackman, E G ^[3]

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1. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW (United Kingdom)
2. Observatoire de Paris, LUTH, Meudon, 92195 (France)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627-0171 (United States)

We present results of high energy density laboratory experiments on the production of supersonic radiatively cooled plasma jets with dimensionless parameters (Mach number {approx}30, cooling parameter {approx}1 and density contrast {rho}j/{rho}a {approx}10) similar to those in YSO jets. The jets are produced using two modifications of wire array Z-pinch driven by 1MA, 250ns current pulse of MAGPIE facility at Imperial College London. In the first set of experiments the produced jets are purely hydrodynamic and are used to study deflection of the jets by the plasma cross-wind, including the structure of internal oblique shocks in the jets. In the second configuration the jets are driven by the pressure of the toroidal magnetic field and this configuration is relevant to the astrophysical models of jet launching mechanisms. Modifications of the experimental configuration allowing addition of the poloidal magnetic field and angular momentum to the jets are also discussed. We also present three-dimensional resistive magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the experiments and discuss the scaling of the experiments to the astrophysical systems.

• OSTI ID: 20798476
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 827; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY DENSITY
MACH NUMBER
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA
PLASMA JETS
PLASMA SIMULATION
PULSES
SUPERSONIC FLOW