Fluid motions induced by an electric current discharge

Abstract
In this paper we consider the flow field induced by an electric current discharge emerging from a small hole (mathematically a point) of a plane wall, bounding an incompressible viscous conducting fluid. The current is directed radially from the discharge. In earlier work, where the effect of the velocity on the electromagnetic field was neglected, it was shown that the velocity field contains singularities, and therefore the solution breaks down, when K = 2 J 2 0 / πρv 2 > K crit ≈ 300.1. Here J 0 is the total current of the discharge, ρ the fluid density and v the coefficient of kinematic viscosity. It is found that for a finitely conducting fluid when account is taken of the effect of the velocity on the electromagnetic field, K crit is a monotonically increasing function of α = 4 πvσ where σ is the electrical conductivity of the fluid. The interaction of this flow field with that due to a jet or sink of momentum, emerging from the same hole as the electric current discharge, is also considered in some detail.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: