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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
High magnetic shear gain in a liquid sodium stable Couette flow experiment: a prelude to an α-Ω dynamo
Stirling A Colgate1, Howard Beckley, Jiahe Si
1T-2, MS B-227, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA. colgate@lanl.gov
Abstract:
The Ω phase of the liquid sodium α-Ω dynamo experiment at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in cooperation with Los Alamos National Laboratory has demonstrated a high toroidal field B(ϕ) that is ≃8×B(r), where B(r) is the radial component of an applied poloidal magnetic field. This enhanced toroidal field is produced by the rotational shear in stable Couette flow within liquid sodium at a magnetic Reynolds number Rm≃120. Small turbulence in stable Taylor-Couette flow is caused by Ekman flow at the end walls, which causes an estimated turbulence energy fraction of (δv/v)(2)∼10(-3).
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