Acta Mechanica

, Volume 215, Issue 1–4, pp 1–8 | Cite as

Magnetic spherical Couette flow in linear combinations of axial and dipolar fields

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Abstract

We present axisymmetric numerical calculations of the fluid flow induced in a spherical shell with inner sphere rotating and outer sphere stationary. A magnetic field is also imposed, consisting of particular linear combinations of axial and dipolar fields, chosen to make B r  = 0 at either the outer sphere, or the inner, or in between. This leads to the formation of Shercliff shear layers at these particular locations. We then consider the effect of increasingly large inertial effects and show that an outer Shercliff layer is eventually destabilized, an inner Shercliff layer appears to remain stable, and an in-between Shercliff layer is almost completely disrupted even before the onset of time-dependence, which does eventually occur though.

Keywords

Shear Layer Spherical Shell Meridional Circulation Outer Sphere Hartmann Number 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of Geophysics, ETHZürichSwitzerland
  2. 2.Department of Applied MathematicsUniversity of LeedsLeedsUK

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