THE UNIFORM EXPANSION OF A SPHERICAL PLASMA BUBBLE INTO AN IONIZED ATMOSPHERE IN A STRONG MAGNETIC FIELD. Chap. 3 of THEORETICAL STUDY OF HYDROMAGNETIC STABILITY AND TURBULENCE. INVESTIGATIONS AND DETAILED RESULTS. Annual Report, Period: January 1-December 31, 1961

Technical Report · Wed Oct 31 04:00:00 EST 1962

OSTI ID:4825643

Bernstein, I B; Kulsrud, R M

The uniform expansion of a perfectly conducting spherical bubble into an ideal hydromagnetic fluid of constant density, uniform field, and zero pressure is considered. It is supposed that the Alfven speed associated with the density and magnetic field is much greater than the expansion speed. In this circumstance a weak spherical shock propagates at the Alfven speed into the undisturbed region. At any instant the region behind the shock is very large compared with the volume of the piston. Over most of this region the magnetic field is perturbed very little from its equilibrium value and the linearized theory is appropriate. Close to the piston the magnetic field is perturbed a finite amount which to the lowest order is given by the vacuum dipole field associated with a perfectly conducting sphere in a constant external magnetic field. The linearization procedure permits the explicit solution for all quantities, the magnetic field, pressure, density, and velocity in terms of elementary functions. It is found to lowest significant order that all quantities are continuous across the shock surface. There remains in this limit to solve a boundary layer problein in the vicinity of the piston so as to determine more precisely the nature of the fields and the flows. (auth)

• Research Organization: Radio Corp. of America. Missile and Surface Radar Div., Moorestown, N.J.
• NSA Number: NSA-16-022713
• OSTI ID: 4825643
• Report Number(s): AFSWC-TDR-62-12(Vol.II)(Chap.3
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

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