Magnetorotational Instability in Electrically Driven Flow of Liquid Metal: Spectral Analysis

Abstract

The spectral stability of liquid metal differentially rotating in transverse magnetic field is studied numerically by solving the eigenvalue problem with rigid-wall boundary conditions. The equilibrium velocity profile used in calculations corresponds to the electrically driven flow in circular channel with the rotation law Ω(r)~1/r^2. This type of flow profile is planned to be used in new experimental device to test the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in laboratory. Our analysis includes calculations of the eigen-frequency spectra for both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric modes. It is found that for chosen device parameters the flow is always spectrally unstable due to MRI with the fastest growth rate corresponding to the axisymmetric mode.

20 pages, 15 figures (eps-format)

References in corpus (4)

• Experimental observation and characterization of the magnetorotational instability
• New type of magneto-rotational instability in cylindrical Taylor-Couette flow
• The traveling wave MRI in cylindrical Taylor-Couette flow: comparing wavelengths and speeds in theory and experiment
• End-effects in rapidly rotating cylindrical Taylor-Couette flow

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• Large scale dynamo action precedes turbulence in shearing box simulations of the magnetorotational instability
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• Inertio-elastic instability of a vortex column
• A non-local magneto-curvature instability in a differentially rotating disk
• Prospects for observing the magnetorotational instability in the Plasma Couette Experiment
• Pseudo--magnetorotational instability in a Taylor-Dean flow between electrically connected cylinders
• MHD Flow Regimes in Annular Channel
• Global Non-Axisymmetric Hall Instabilities in a Rotating Plasma