The Effects of Plasma Fluctuation in MHD Generators : Studies with a Numerical Turbulence Model

Abstract

The effects of the spatiotemporal inhomogeneity of a plasma in thermal equilibrium on the local and output characteristics of a Faraday-type MHD generator were investigated using numerically modeled turbulent velocity and temperature data. The conditions of Saha equilibrium in the range of the mean temperature level and the maximum turbulent frequency were given. The mean conductivity formula was also given as a function of the rms fluctuation. The average correlations between the electric field fluctuations and those of the conductivity in the mean Ohm's law were evaluated in terms of the mean electrical parameters. Rosa's G-factor was modified to include the spatiotemporal conductivity variance. It was shown that the one-dimensional anisotropic model somewhat underestimates the effective resistance of the turbulent MHD plasma with a two-dimensional anisotropy.