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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Physics

Dartmouth College

Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

Publication Year

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Low Magnetic Prandtl Number Dynamos With Helical Forcing, Pablo D. Mininni, David C. Montgomery Nov 2005

Low Magnetic Prandtl Number Dynamos With Helical Forcing, Pablo D. Mininni, David C. Montgomery

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present direct numerical simulations of dynamo action in a forced Roberts flow. The behavior of the dynamo is followed as the mechanical Reynolds number is increased, starting from the laminar case until a turbulent regime is reached. The critical magnetic Reynolds for dynamo action is found, and in the turbulent flow it is observed to be nearly independent on the magnetic Prandtl number in the range from ∼0.3 to ∼0.1. Also the dependence of this threshold with the amount of mechanical helicity in the flow is studied. For the different regimes found, the configuration of the magnetic and velocity …


Velocity Field Distributions Due To Ideal Line Vortices, Thomas D. Levi, David C. Montgomery Apr 2001

Velocity Field Distributions Due To Ideal Line Vortices, Thomas D. Levi, David C. Montgomery

Dartmouth Scholarship

We evaluate numerically the velocity field distributions produced by a bounded, two-dimensional fluid model consisting of a collection of parallel ideal line vortices. We sample at many spatial points inside a rigid circular boundary. We focus on “nearest-neighbor” contributions that result from vortices that fall (randomly) very close to the spatial points where the velocity is being sampled. We confirm that these events lead to a non-Gaussian high-velocity “tail” on an otherwise Gaussian distribution function for the Eulerian velocity field. We also investigate the behavior of distributions that do not have equilibrium mean-field probability distributions that are uniform inside the …