Analytical results for the resistive Rayleigh-Taylor instability in rail launcher accelerated plasmas

Author

Huerta, M.A. ; Castillo, J.L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Miami Univ., Coral Gables, FL, USA

Volume

31

Issue

1

fYear

1995

Firstpage

610

Lastpage

615

Abstract

We obtain analytical results for the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in finite conductivity accelerated plasma arcs. Our results apply to the case /spl upsi//sub T//sup 2//a/spl Lscr//spl Gt/1, where /spl Lscr/ is the plasma length, a is the acceleration, and /spl upsi//sub T/ is the thermal speed. This case is valid in electromagnetic rail launchers where the projectile mass is large compared to the plasma mass. The conductivity /spl sigma/ enters via a magnetic Reynolds number R=/spl sigma//spl mu/(a/spl Lscr//sup 3/)/sup 1/2 /. The fourth order mode equation is solved analytically using an asymptotic WKB expansion in 1/R. We find the first order 1/R correction to the classical Rayleigh-Taylor dispersion relation for wavenumber K with 1/spl Lt/KL/spl Lt/R/sup 2/.<>

Keywords

Rayleigh-Taylor instability; WKB calculations; electrical conductivity; electromagnetic launchers; plasma devices; plasma guns; plasma instability; plasma transport processes; projectiles; asymptotic WKB expansion; electromagnetic rail launchers; finite conductivity accelerated plasma arcs; fourth order mode equation; magnetic Reynolds number; plasma length; plasma mass; projectile mass; rail launcher accelerated plasmas; resistive Rayleigh-Taylor instability; thermal speed; Acceleration; Conductivity; Equations; Magnetic analysis; Plasma accelerators; Plasma density; Plasma temperature; Projectiles; Rails; Steady-state;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.364625

Filename

364625