Current status of Riga dynamo experiment


Current status of Riga dynamo experiment

Gailitis, A.; Lielausis, O.; Platacis, E.; Gerbeth, G.; Stefani, F.

Almost eight years ago the first magnetic field was created by an intense flow of molten sodium in the Riga dynamo experiment. Since then a lot of data has been collected. In our geometry dominates the vertical field component which is remarkably strong with a maximum value exceeding 0.1 T. The principal symmetry of field with respect to the vertical axis is m=1. As such a strong field considerably deforms the flow some additional modes with m=3, 5 and even 7 are observed. The field pattern rotates around the axis with a frequency of 1.2 to 1.8 Hz. This rotation is not completely constant as turbulence in sodium flow creates some turbulence in magnetic field, too. Nevertheless the field turbulence is low and causes no considerable secondary electromagnetic effects. Hence the field generation itself is based on the mean-flow only. For the last two years the experiment was in repair. Among other things a worn out sodium seal was replaced by a magnetic coupler. This will widen the measuring possibilities particularly in the vicinity of the threshold. We plan to restart experiments this summer and hope to report new results at the meeting.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    MHD Laboratory Experiments for Geophysics and Astrophysics, 01.-03.10.2007, Catania, Italy

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Publ.-Id: 10231