Electrode layers in flows of an inviscid plasma with good conductivity

Abstract

The structure of the electromagnetic electrode layers that are produced in flows across a magnetic field by a completely ionized and inviscid plasma with good conductivity and a high magnetic Reynolds number is examined in a linear approximation. Flow past a corrugated wall and flow in a plane channel of slowly varying cross section with segmented electrodes are taken as specific examples. The possibility is demonstrated of the formation of “nondissipative” electrode layers with thicknesses on the order of the Debye distance or electron Larmor radius and of “dissipative” layers with thicknesses on the order of the skin thickness, as calculated from the diffusion rate in a magnetic field [2].

In plasma flow in a transverse magnetic field, near the walls, along with the “gasdynamie” boundary layers, which owe their formation to viscosity, thermal conductivity, etc. (because of the presence of electromagnetic fields, their structures may vary considerably from that of ordinary gasdynamic layers), proper electromagnetic boundary layers may also be produced. An example of such layers is the Debye layer in which the quasi-neutrality of the plasma is upset. No less important, in a number of cases, is the quasi-neutral electromagnetic boundary layer, in which there is an abrupt change in the “frozen-in” parameter k=B/p (B is the magnetic field and p is the density of the medium). This layer plays a special role when we must explicitly allow for the Hall effect and the related formation of a longitudinal electric field (in the direction of the veloeiryv of the medium). We will call this the magnetic layer. The magnetic boundary layer can be “dissipative” as well as “noudissipative” (see below). The “dissipative” magnetic layer has been examined in a number of papers: for an incompressible medium with a given motion law in [1], for a compressible medium with good conductivity in [2], and with poor conductivity in [3]. In the present paper, particular attention will be devoted to nondissipative magnetic boundary layers.