TITLE:
Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Magnetized Plasma
AUTHORS:
G. A. Hoshoudy
KEYWORDS:
Rayleigh-Taylor Instability, Plasma, Horizontal and Vertical Magnetic Field
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Mechanics,
Vol.4 No.8,
August
28,
2014
ABSTRACT: The Rayleigh-Taylor instability in stratified plasma has been
investigated in the presence of combined effect of horizontal and vertical
magnetic field. The linear growth rate has been derived for the case where
plasma with exponential density distribution is confined between two rigid
planes by solving the linear MHD equations into normal mode. Some special cases
have been particularized to explain the roles the variables of the problem play;
numerical solutions have been made and some stability diagrams are plotted and
discussed. The results show that, the growth rate depends on the horizontal and
vertical components of magnetic field and also depends on the parameter λ*=λLD (λ is constant and LD is the
density-scale length). The maximum instability happens at λ*=-0.5 and to get more stability model we selectλ* such that it is different thanλ*=-0.5. The
vertical magnetic field component have a greater effect than the horizontal
magnetic field component in the case of large wavelength, while in the case of
short wavelength, the horizontal magnetic field components have
greater effect than the vertical magnetic field component.