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Updated: May 22, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Observation of a free-Shercliff-layer instability in cylindrical geometry
Austin H Roach1, Erik J Spence, Christophe Gissinger
1Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, P.O. Box 451 Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA. aroach@pppl.gov
Abstract:
We report on observations of a free-Shercliff-layer instability in a Taylor-Couette experiment using a liquid metal over a wide range of Reynolds numbers, Re∼10(3)-10(6). The free Shercliff layer is formed by imposing a sufficiently strong axial magnetic field across a pair of differentially rotating axial end cap rings. This layer is destabilized by a hydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz-type instability, characterized by velocity fluctuations in the r-θ plane. The instability appears with an Elsasser number above unity, and saturates with an azimuthal mode number m which increases with the Elsasser number. Measurements of the structure agree well with 2D global linear mode analyses and 3D global nonlinear simulations. These observations have implications for a range of rotating MHD systems in which similar shear layers may be produced.
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