Propagation of a laminar jet of electrically conducting fluid in a uniform magnetic field

Abstract

Several papers [1–4] have considered the propagation of a plane laminar jet of incompressible conducting fluid in a uniform magnetic field for magnetic Reynolds numbers much less than unity. These papers have investigated the flow of a free jet in a transverse magnetic field for small values of the magnetic interaction parameter. Equations for the first approximations were obtained in [1, 2] by a series expansion in the small interaction parameter close to the ordinary solution (without magnetic field) for the jet. The equations for the zero-th and first approximations were integrated in [3]. The same author also found a similar solution for a turbulent jet, the turbulent transfer coefficient being chosen according to Prandtl's method. As regards the solution found in [4], it suffers from the defect that the constant of integration which connects the real velocity profiles with those found in the paper remains undetermined. The present paper gives an approximate solution of the same dynamic problem of the propagation of a free plane jet in a uniform field, no assumption being made as to the smallness of the interaction parameter. In order to do this the integral method of solution, common in ordinary hydrodynamics [5, 6] is employed. The solution of the problem is generalized to include the case of a finite value of the Hall parameter.