Events

Events at Physics

<< Fall 2011 Spring 2012 Summer 2012 >>
Subscribe your calendar or receive email announcements of events
Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
Using liquid metal experiments to test models of MHD turbulence
Date: Monday, March 5th
Time: 12:00 pm
Place: 2241 Chamberlin
Speaker: Mark Nornberg, UW-Madison
Abstract: Experiments using liquid metals to demonstrate MHD instabilities like the generation of magnetic field through a dynamo or magnetically induced turbulence through the Magnetorotational Instability provide a wealth of information on MHD turbulence. Recent measurements of the correlated velocity and magnetic fluctuations on the Madison Dynamo Experiment reveal that simple mean-field models, assuming homogeneous and isotropic turbulence, describe the measured transport of magnetic field rather well. Turbulence in a rapidly rotating fluid, like that of an experiment designed to study the magnetorotational instability, has a strong anisotropy however which tends to confine the motions of the fluid to two-dimensional, wave-like turbulence. I will present some ideas for experiments using a rapidly rotating liquid metal to study the effects of magnetic fields on these waves and to test mean-field models for describing turbulent transport in these flows.
Add this event to your calendar