On the effects of turbulence on a screw dynamo

Abstract

In an experiment in the Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics in Perm (Russia) a non-stationary screw dynamo is intended to be realized with a helical flow of liquid sodium in a torus. The flow is necessarily turbulent, that is, may be considered as a mean flow and a superimposed turbulence. In this study, the induction processes of the turbulence are investigated within the framework of mean-field electrodynamics. They imply, of course, a part which leads to an enhanced dissipation of the mean magnetic field. As a consequence of the helical mean flow there are also helical structures in the turbulence. They lead to some kind of α-effect, which might basically support the screw dynamo. The peculiarity of this α-effect explains measurements made at a smaller version of the device envisaged for the dynamo experiment. The helical structures of the turbulence lead also to other effects, which in combination with a rotational shear are potentially capable of dynamo action. A part of them can basically support the screw dynamo. Under the conditions of the experiment all induction effects of the turbulence prove to be rather weak in comparison to that of the main flow. Numerical solutions of the mean-field induction equation show that all the induction effects of the turbulence together let the screw dynamo threshold slightly, at most by a few percent, rise. The numerical results also give some insights into the action of the individual induction effects of the turbulence.