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Updated: Jul 24, 2025

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Seeding the Electrothermal Instability through a Three-Dimensional, Nonlinear Perturbation
E P Yu1, T J Awe1, K R Cochrane1
1Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, USA.
Abstract:
Electrothermal instability plays an important role in applications of current-driven metal, creating striations (which seed the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability) and filaments (which provide a more rapid path to plasma formation). However, the initial formation of both structures is not well understood. Simulations show for the first time how a commonly occurring isolated defect transforms into the larger striation and filament, through a feedback loop connecting current and electrical conductivity. Simulations have been experimentally validated using defect-driven self-emission patterns.
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