Anisotropic transport in MHD turbulence: Experimental results using small gas bubbles as local tracers

It is well known now that in a liquid metal duct flow exposed to a strong transverse magnetic field turbulent fluctuations can persist even when the mean flow can be regarded as laminar with respect to the overall pressure drop. It was also found, that these fluctuations can even be increased under distinct conditions. This effect is in line with the model of two-dimensional MHD turbulence. While 3D turbulence elements are effectively damped by the magnetic field, 2D eddies with axes in the direction of the B-field are not influenced by this damping mechanism. The use of this 2D turbulence allows an enhancement of the heat/mass transport perpendicular to the flow direction without a significant influence on the overall pressure drop.
There is an ongoing research in the FZR MHD group on local transport phenomena in a turbulent LM duct flow exposed to a transverse magnetic field. Measurements were performed at the FZR sodium facility. The advantage of sodium is that high MHD parameters (Ha = 3000, N = 800) can be reached with moderate values of the magnetic field (B = 0.5 T). On the other hand the properties of sodium cause considerable difficulties with respect to any local measurements in such a flow (velocity, fluctuation intensities). Thus the idea was created to use small gas bubbles (argon) as local tracers for the investigation of local transport mechanisms. In the case of our experimental conditions a volumetric gas flow ratio lower than 0.09 clearly indicates a pure bubbly flow regime. The bubbles are injected by means of a single injector in the center of the channel cross section or in the vicinity of a channel wall. The injector was located in the region where the flow enters into the magnetic field. A traversing mechanism allows to move the B-field-region. Single wire resistivity probes are used for measuring the local void fraction and the number of bubbles.
The measured local dispersion of bubbles shows a significant anisotropy which clearly corre ...