The Experiment of Collision of Two Plasma Streams I

Abstract

The effective conversion of kinetic energy of two plasma streams into thermal energy which collided at the center of a weak magnetic guide was confirmed by comparing the sum of diamagnetic signals from both single streams with a diamagnetic signal during the collision.The axial distribution of a transverse energy density during the collision was measured by four magnetic loops arranged along the coil axis in the region of the guide field.The axial distribution of the transverse energy density has the maximum at the midplane which increases with the strength of the guide field. It decreases typically from 4×1015eV/cm3to 1 × 1015eV/cm3in 20 μsec and the axial gradient of the transverse energy density become slight.The comparison with the axial distribution of kinetic pressure computed by the one-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic code suggests that the thermal conductibn along the magnetic field plays a dominant role in the formation of a shock wave.