Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T18:04:51.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stability of fluid layers carrying a normal electric current

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2006

A. D. Sneyd
A. D. Sneyd
Affiliation:
University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain MHD instabilities observed in aluminium reduction cells. The model analysed is a plane horizontal poorly conducting fluid layer, sandwiched between two highly conducting semi-infinite layers, the lower one a fluid and the upper solid. A uniform normal current passes through all three layers, and the stability of small perturbations to the fluid–fluid interface is analysed. Plane waves are described which can be of either constant or exponentially growing amplitude, depending on the form of the magnetic field due to distant current sources. A model of an electric are furnace in which the upper layer too is fluid is considered, and in this case MHD effects can also be destabilizing.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 156 , July 1985 , pp. 223 - 236
Copyright
© 1985 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Lighthill, M. J. 1978 Waves in Fluids. Cambridge University Pess.
Lympany, S. D., Evans, J. W. & Moreau, R. 1983 Magnetohydrodynamic effects in aluminium reduction cells. In Proc. IUTAM Symp. on Metallurgical Applications of Magnetohydrodynamics, Cambridge, 1982, pp. 15–23. The Metals Society, London.