THE INTERACTION OF A PLANE STRONG SHOCK WAVE WITH A STEADY MAGNETIC FIELD
An investigation was made of the interaction of a magnetic field and the flow of ionized and electrically conductive argon. The following three configurations are considered: (1) a magnetic field transverse to the axis of either a rectangular or a circular shock tube; (2) an axially symmetric magnetic field as produced by a coil concentric with a circular shock tube; and (3) a radial magnetic field in an annular shock tube. The shock tube walls are assumed to be non-conductive. The axial components of the ponderomotive forces that act on the gas as a result of its motion through the magnetic field are calculated for each of the three cases. The analysis is based on the assumption of a weakly conductive gas. The results show that the distribution of the axial ponderomotive forces over the tube cross section is basically non-uniform for the cases (1) and (2), whereas the uniformity is reasonably good for an annular tube with typical geometry. The behavior of the flow of an ionized gas under the action of the axial ponderomotive force components was determined by considering the flow to be one-dimensionai. The results indicate that the use of ideal gas flow equations is inadequate to give a correct picture of the flow of a gas with equilibrium ionization. The limiting conditions beyond which a shock wave cannot be reflected off the magnetic field are considered and the results of calculations to determine the choking conditions in the flow of an ionized gas are presented. The results for the limiting conditions for the occurrence of a reflected shock wave, which were evaluated for a couple of typical cases, show that: (1) at a given experimental presboth for very low and very high shock Mach numbers; and (2) at a given shock Mach number the reflected shock wave is not expected to occur above a certain pressure level. Comparative calculations for neon indicate that for this gas at a given pressure level and shock Mach number, the reflected shoek wave will occur at tower magnetic field strengths than would be required to produce reflected shock waves in argon. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Toronto. Univ.
- NSA Number:
- NSA-14-012291
- OSTI ID:
- 4194972
- Report Number(s):
- UTIA-49; AD-162003
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
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