Magnetohydrodynamic stability of heterogeneous incompressible nondissipative conducting liquids

Abstract

This discussion which is restricted to the flow of heterogeneous, incompressible, inviscid, perfect conducting liquids between two rotating or nonrotating coaxial cylinders is divided into three parts. In the first part the stability of the liquid in question between two coaxial nonrotating cylinders with an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the flow is investigated. A sufficient condition for stability is found and if the motion is unstable an upper bound for the amplification factor is given. As a particular case the stability of the liquid with uniform steady velocity, and density varying as a function of a distance from the axis of the cylinders is discussed and it is found that the effect of the magnetic field makes the flow more stable. In part two the stability of the liquid in question between two rotating coaxial cylinders with an applied magnetic field in the tangential direction is discussed. A necessary and sufficient condition for stability is derived. In part three the stability of the same liquid between two rotating coaxial with an applied magnetic field in the axial direction is treated. A sufficient condition for stability is derived. In general, we infer that in the case of parallel flow the magnetic field plays the same role in the liquid as gravitational field in Synge's) discussion.