Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2006
Induced magnetic fields in shock-tube flows have been measured by previous authors, in order to determine the electrical conductivity of ionized gases. Distortion of the applied magnetic field was taken to be small. In the present work, the full magnetic field solution is developed for idealized boundary conditions. At a magnetic Reynolds number equal to 4 the distortion is found to be considerable, but the field is well represented by a solution correct to third order in magnetic Reynolds number. The axial field in a real shock-tube configuration was computed, and experimentally measured fields were found to agree reasonably with theory.