Magnetohydrodynamic analysis of the interaction of magnetized plasma flow with a perfect-conducting object

Abstract

In this study, a supersonic and super-Alfv́nic magnetized plasma flow past a perfect-conducting cylinder was simulated based on single-fluid ideal magnetohydrodynamics to clarify the piling-up process of the magnetic field frozen in the plasma flow. Therefore, the magnetic field is assumed to be perpendicular to both the cylinder axis and the flow direction. Simulation results indicated that the cylinder continuously traps the magnetic field and an unsteady flow field is generated. Even though the drag force exerting on the cylinder is expected to continuously increase with the continuous increase in the trapped magnetic field and the shock layer, the intensity of magnetic flux density at the cylinder surface is saturated at a certain value and the drag force is also saturated. The saturated values are characterized by the Alfv́n Mach number of the mainstream. Furthermore, on this flow structure the wake flow in which magnetic reconnection plays an important role was found to have a strong influence by using the pseudomagnetic reconnection in the ideal magnetohydrodynamic flow. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.