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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Linear stability of an alternating-magnetic-field-driven flow in a spinning cylindrical container
Victor Shatrov1, Gunter Gerbeth, Regina Hermann
1Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, P. O. Box 510119, D-01314 Dresden, Germany.
Abstract:
We present a numerical analysis of free-surface liquid metal flow and its three-dimensional linear stability. The flow is driven by an alternating magnetic field in a spinning cylindrical container. The electromagnetic and hydrodynamic fields are fully coupled via the shape of the liquid free surface. The hydrodynamic equations are solved by a spectral collocation method, and the alternating magnetic field distribution is found by a boundary-integral method. The flow stability is analyzed for various magnetohydrodynamic interaction parameters and Ekman numbers assuming a flat free surface. We find that only a sufficiently fast spinning suppresses and stabilizes the flow, but a moderate spinning can significantly destabilize it.
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