GB1216644A - Improvements in and relating to magneto hydrodynamic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1,216,644. MHD apparatus. COMPAGNIE GENERALE D'ELECTRICITE. 10 June, 1969 [13 June, 1968], No. 29234/69. Heading H2A. MHD apparatus, e.g. a generator, comprises a plasma chamber defined between two concentric parallel discs 1, Fig. 1, an arrangement for producing a magnetic field perpendicular to the discs, and electrodes for collecting the current generated in the plasma, each disc being formed of an assembly of sector-shaped cells 8, and each cell comprising an assembly of elements 9 arranged substantially perpendicular to the axis of symmetry of the cell. The field is produced by two coils 3 located one adjacent each of the discs 1, and the coils may be superconductive. The plasma is produced by a burner 2 and flows radially between the discs, the height of the elements 9 decreasing from the centre of the discs to the periphery so that a divergent plasma chamber is produced. The elements at the same radical distance from the centre of each disc are assembled to form a polygonal member, the elements of each cell 8 being radially spaced and insulated from one another by an inert gas flowing in the spaces between them. The elements 9 are made of metal and include pipes for coolant flow, the pipes of adjacent elements being interconnected. An anode and cathode respectively located at the centre and periphery of the plasma chamber each comprise, on each disc, a plurality of jets of hot liquid metal directed into the plasma. If seeding is employed, the seed metal may be the same as that used in the jets. Adjacent jets of liquid metal are insulated by a jet of insulative gas located between them and directed into the chamber from the discs.