Abstract
The production of non-equilibrium plasma and the fluid flow with the MHD interaction are examined experimentally with a shock-tube driven disk channel with no loading electrodes. For low magnetic flux density and low seed fraction, where non-uniform and unsteady plasma is generated, the static pressure decreases onotonically in the radial direction, although the pressure increases in the entire region of the channel in comparison with the value under no MHD interaction. For magnetic flux density and seed fraction above some critical values, a fairly uniform plasma is produced. The static pressure, however, is found to increase abruptly in the channel and the total pressure is considerably reduced at the location, where the abrupt pressure increase ocuurs. These facts imply that steady and uniform plasma should be produced without locally constricted strong Lorentz force to improve the adiabatic efficiency of a disk MHD generator.
