Lectures8and9.pptVIP

Lecture 4 MHD equations Flux Freezing The MHD Ohm’s law is sometimes referred to as the perfect conductivity equation, for obvious reasons, and sometimes as the flux freezing equation. Local freezing in condition Let us write the equation for liquid line. Each point of this line is connected with the particle. So this line moves together with the particles comprising the line. Let us investigate how the length of this line changes with time. It means that if at the initial moment these vectors coincide by direction, they will be parallel all the time, and their length will change proportionally. So if two infinitely close liquid elements are located on the same line of force they will stay on the same line. We conclude each magnetic field line moves together with liquid elements on it, or that magnetic field lines are frozen in plasma. The magnetic flux through any closed contour in the plasma, each element of which moves with the local plasma velocity, is a conserved quantity. In order to verify the above assertion, let us consider the magnetic flux, Ψ, through a contour, C, which is co-moving with the plasma: Here, S is some surface which spans C. The time rate of change of Ψ is made up of two parts. Firstly, there is the part due to the time variation of B over the surface S. This can be written Using the Maxwell equation, this reduces to Secondly, there is the part due to the motion of C. If dl is an element of C then V × dl is the area swept out by dl per unit time. Hence, the flux crossing this area is B?V × dl. It follows that Using Stokes’s theorem, we obtain Hence, the total time rate of change of Ψ is given by The condition cE + V × B = 0 clearly implies that Ψ remains constant in time for any arbitrary contour. This, in turn, implies that magnetic field-lines must move with the plasma. In other words, the field lines are frozen into the plasma. A flux-tube is defined as a topologically cylindrical volume whose sides are defined by magnetic field-l