Magnetically Induced Currents and Thermoelectric Effects in a Non-Uniform Plasma Stream

摘要

An experimental and theoretical investigation into the definition and effects of magnetically induced currents in a non-uniform, decaying, partially-ionized gas flow is reported. It is shown that it is possible to explain certain experimental observations if thermoelectric charge transport is included in the constitutive relation between fields and current density. In addition, (1) measured values of the ratio of an effective electron thermal conductivity to the thermoelectric coefficient and (2) experimental conditions suggest that this partially-ionized-gas transport can be adequately explained in terms of the results of fully-ionized-gas transport theory (Spitzer-Haerm). Implicit in this result is the conclusion that the total e.m.f. induced in non-uniform ionized gases includes a direct contribution from the electron energy in addition to the well known motional e.m.f. which derives from the relative motion of conductor and induction field. (Author)