Model for the saturation of the hydromagnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Conference · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6243070

Roderick, N F; Hussey, T W

The saturation of the hydromagnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability is caused by the reduction of driving current in the bubble region between the spikes formed as the instability develops. For short wavelengths, linear magnetic-field diffusion provides the necessary smoothing of the magnetic field to reduce the driving force. For wavelengths longer than the magnetic diffusion length, the current is shorted through material which expands into the bubble region. This initially-low-density material accumulates in the bubble and eventually provides a source of sufficiently-high-conductivity plasma, which reduces magnetic-field penetration to the front of the bubble. Simple analytic models have been developed to verify and quantify these predictions. These models have been compared with two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic calculations for imploding plasma shells and give good agreement with these more-detailed simulations.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA); New Mexico Univ., Albuquerque (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6243070
• Report Number(s): SAND-83-1239C; CONF-830590-1; ON: DE83012629
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700107* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Instabilities
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
IMPLOSIONS
INSTABILITY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SATURATION