Experiments in a Cylindrical Magnetic Shock Tube

Citation

Vlases, George Charpentier (1963) Experiments in a Cylindrical Magnetic Shock Tube. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/1EHZ-AZ30. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:10092012-110749746

Abstract

An investigation has been conducted with the two-fold purpose of producing very high Mach number shock waves and studying their interaction with an external magnetic field parallel to the shock front. By means of the technique of electromagnetic driving, stable reproducible, outward-going cylindrical shock waves in the Mach number range from 20 to 100 have been produced and studied.

Theory predicts fundamental differences between the interaction of a magnetic field with a shock moving into a highly conducting fluid and the interaction of a field with a strong gas-ionizing shock. In the former case a true mhd shock is produced. In the latter the field interacts directly only with the piston and the shock remains an ordinary one. The effect of a conducting wall surrounding the chamber also differs substantially in the two cases.

Detailed experiments have been carried out on gas-ionizing shocks. While the overall motion is very nearly that predicted by the theory, anomalies have arisen in the details of the flow and are explained in a qualitative manner.

Methods of producing sufficient initial conductivity to obtain a thin magnetohydrodynamic shock are discussed, together with some preliminary experiments along these lines.

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