Development of pulsation regimes in one-dimensional unsteady MHD flows with switching off of the electrical conductivity

Abstract

This paper investigates the gas flow in an electromagnetic field when the conductivity, being a function of the thermodynamic gas parameters, vanishes during the flow (switching off of the conductivity). In the case of steady supersonic flows in an expanding nozzle it was first shown analytically [1] and then confirmed by numerical experiment [2] that stable steady flow is not possible for all the problem parameters (for example, the values of the magnetic field at the exit). Instead of a steady flow a periodic regime is realized when narrow regions of conducting gas with currents flowing through them detach from the conducting region and propagate down the channel. In these papers the conductivity was assumed to be a function of only the temperature, such that for T ≪ T* σ(T) = 0. In [3, 4] the flows of conducting gas in the channels were calculated both with the given dependence of the gas conductivity on the temperature and on the basis of a three-component model by means of the Saha equation. At the same time, the development of periodic regimes in the flow in the nozzle was observed in both cases, but the mechanism of the origin of the current layers was not explained. The self-similar problem of the withdrawal of a nonconducting piston from a half-space occupied by a conducting gas with a magnetic field was investigated in [5] in a linear formulation. At the same time, regions of the problem parameters (the velocity of the piston and the magnetic field on it) were found when, in spite of the self-similar formulation of the problem, there is no self-similar solution. At the same time, regions exist where several solutions are possible. The possibility of the formation of isothermal rarefaction zones with low electrical conductivity when the Joule heating is balanced by the cooling of the gas on expansion (Butler waves) [6] was not taken into account in this paper, since they are unstable with respect to superheating. However, in the case of flow in a nozzle it was shown [2] that precisely the development of instabilities in these zones leads to the formation of the periodic regime. In the present paper the solution of the self-similar problem is constructed in a nonlinear formulation. The reason for the occurrence of regions in which the solution is multiply valued, which is associated with the process of arrival at self-similar boundary conditions, is explained. It is shown that a quasiperiodic regime can arise in the solution, occurring, in particular, in the regions of the problem parameters where there is no self-similar solution.