Magnets for Magnetohydrodynamic Applications
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, MIT was responsible for managing
a national MHD Magnet Development Program. The integrated value of that
program was about 25 M$. The effort involved magnetic systems R&D,
the detailed design of four large MHD magnets, and the fabrication of three
of them. One of the latter was a water-cooled resistive magnet which used
about 32 tonnes of copper and 140 tonnes of iron. It was delivered and
installed at the MHD Component Development and Integration Facility, Butte,
Montana, where it is currently in operation. The Plasma Science and Fusion
Center, under contract from TRW, designed a superconducting magnet for
a space-based MHD disk generator. The superconducting magnet is designed
using a 25 kA/cm2 (at 1.8 K) conductor. As a ground-based proof-of- principle
experiment, the PSFC carried out the detailed design of a nitrogen-cooled
pulse magnet. The magnets have peak fields of 9 tesla, and inner diameters
of 0.8 m. Magnetohydrodynamic propulsion for naval vessels has been investigated
by the Division, in support of activities at the Naval Underwater Systems
Command. This involved conceptual design activities for the superconducting
magnets which would be required, as well as electrochemical and fluid flow
experiments for preliminary investigation of electrode lifetime and process
signature characteristics.
Return to the Technology & Engineering Division home page