| Abstract: | The nonstationary radial motion of a long cylindrical column of conducting gas in a time-varying longitudinal magnetic field is considered. Exact solutions are found by the method of separating the variables for the system of equations of magnetohydrodynamics on the assumption that the statistical pressure of the plasma at the boundary of the column is proportional to the external magnetic pressure. Some numerical computations are performed and the energetic characteristics of the interaction process are calculated. The ratio of the useful work done by the gas over an infinite time interval to the initial energy of the column is given as a function of the magnetic Reynolds number. We note that a similar method was applied in 1], where not only was the average temperature taken over the cross section, but the inertia of the medium was also neglected. When the inertia is taken into account, we have the additional requirement that the statistical pressure be proportional to the magnetic pressure at the boundary of the column.A physically similar model may be interpreted, for example, as the expansion of a compressible conducting gas column in a nonconducting incompressible fluid situated in a permeable cylinder of some radius R infinite along the axis of symmetry. The requirement that the statistical pressure be proportional to the magnetic pressure reduces to the condition that the external pressure on the boundary of the permeable cylinder of radius R should vary according to a specific law, which may easily be determined. |
