Magnetorotational Instability in a Rotating Liquid Metal Annulus

Technical Report · Sat Mar 10 00:00:00 EST 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/780617· OSTI ID:780617

Ji, Hantao; Goodman, Jeremy; Kageyama, Akira

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.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 780617
• Report Number(s): PPPL-3548; TRN: US0102481
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 10 Mar 2001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCRETION DISKS
GALLIUM
INSTABILITY
LIQUID METALS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
ROTATION
COUETTE FLOW