Effect of nonconducting side walls on induced end electric currents

The effect of conditions governing the closing of induced electric currents on the total electrical and dynamical characteristics of the motion of a plasmoid through the rectangular channel of an electric-discharge tube in a nonuniform transverse magnetic field was investigated. It was shown that the electric current can be cut to half by introducing a fairly long and thin nonconducting side wall into the channel in the zone of end currents. The length of the inserted side wall must be not less than 6 channels in order to keep the axial electric current from flowing around the side wall.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 6, pp. 116–121, November–December, 1970.The author is indebted to A. B. Vatazhin for kind assistance rendered in the work and for helpful discussions of the article.