Spontaneous swirling in MHD flows with circular streamlines

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of the evolution of azimuthal perturbations in axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic. flows of an ideally conducting inviscid fluid with circular streamlines. The fluid is. in a toroidal gap between two surfaces with constant values of the stream function. The equations of. fluid motion are derived in the approximation of infinitely a narrow gap. The parameters at which. spontaneous swirling is possible are determined numerically, and the properties of secondary swirling. flows resulting from instability of the initial steady-state poloidal flow are established.