Isentropic Magnetogasdynamic Flow of a Perfect Plasma

Summary

The steady isentropic one-dimensional magnetogasdynamic (MGD) channel flow is investigated for a perfect plasma, i.e. a perfect gas of infinite electrical conductivity. A cross-field device is considered when the electric field and the transverse magnetic field are perpendicular to the main flow. Hall effects are neglected. The conservation equations for mass and momentum as well as Maxwell’s equations can be reduced to a single ordinary differential equation whose solutions are independent of the streamwise coordinate. Consequently, each solution for prescribed initial Mach number Ma, and MGD parameter K can be used for all possible channel geometries. It is shown that even in an isentropic MGD-channel flow (MGD generator) not all of the mechanical energy can be transformed into electrical energy. The results are applied for the design of a typical MGD-energy converter (Ma₁ = 0.85; K = 1.09).