Magnetofluid-Dynamic Drag Measurements on Semi-Infinite Bodies in Aligned Fields

Citation

Suzuki, Bob Hiro (1967) Magnetofluid-Dynamic Drag Measurements on Semi-Infinite Bodies in Aligned Fields. Engineer's thesis, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/JWK4-BM31. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-11152005-154514

Abstract

NOTE: Text or symbols not renderable in plain ASCII are indicated by [...]. Abstract is included in .pdf document. Experiments are described in which measurements were made of the drag of semi-infinite bodies moving parallel to a uniform magnetic field in a conducting fluid. Two of these bodies were moderately streamlined halfbodies and a third was a blunt halfbody. The drag coefficients of all three bodies were found to increase monotonically as a function of the interaction parameter, N. This parameter was varied in the experiments from 0 to about 24. The drag coefficients of the streamlined halfbodies were found to increase linearly with N for N <= 0(1) in agreement with a simple theory based on a calculation of the Joule dissipation. On the other hand, for the same range of N, the drag coefficient of the blunt halfbody was found to increase negligibly from its zero-field value of 0.66. For N>>1, the drag coefficients of all three bodies were of 0(1) and appeared to be asymptotically converging to some common limiting value. Although the drag could not be calculated for large, finite values of N, an inviscid theoretical model of the flow is described from which it is concluded that the drag coefficient of any halfbody must approach unity as [...]. In addition to the experiments with the semi-infinite bodies, experiments are also described in which measurements were made of the non-magnetic drag of impulsively-started flat disks. Some unexpected and interesting transient variations in this drag were observed and are attributed to the vortex formation process in the wake.

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