Induction, helicity, and alpha effect in a toroidal screw flow of liquid gallium

Abstract

We investigate experimentally induction mechanisms in a screw flow of gallium in a toroidal channel. The flow is nonstationary and operated in a spin-down regime: the channel (and fluid) are initially set into solid body rotation; as the channel is stopped the fluid is set into strong helical motion by diverters located inside the channel. In this study, we put a particular emphasis on the induction generated by these helical motions, which are expected to develop over the entire range of turbulent scales. We apply an external magnetic field either perpendicular to the channel axis parallel to it. At large scales the nonlinear induction mechanisms are associated with the Parker stretch and twist effect and with the expulsion due to overall rotation. Induction mechanisms can also originate in the small scale helicity as in the alpha induction effect of mean-field magnetohydrodynamics. Our measurements yield an upper bound for the alpha coefficient, significantly lower than estimates based on dimensional analysis. We discuss the consequences of our observations for the engineering of homogeneous dynamos in the laboratory.