| Issue |
EPL
Volume 87, Number 3, August 2009
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 39002 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Geophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/87/39002 | |
| Published online | 27 August 2009 | |
A numerical model of the VKS experiment
Laboratoire de Physique Statistique and Laboratoire de Radiostronomie, École Normale Supérieure CNRS 24 rue Lhomond, F-75005 Paris, France, EU
Corresponding author: christophe.gissinger@lps.ens.fr
Received:
11
June
2009
Accepted:
23
July
2009
We present numerical simulations of the magnetic field generated by the flow of liquid sodium driven by two counter-rotating impellers (VKS experiment). Using a kinematic code in cylindrical geometry, it is shown that different magnetic modes can be generated depending on the flow configuration. While the time-averaged axisymmetric mean flow generates an equatorial dipole, our simulations show that an axial field of either dipolar or quadrupolar symmetry can be generated by taking into account non-axisymmetric components of the flow. Moreover, we show that by breaking a symmetry of the flow, the magnetic field becomes oscillatory. This leads to reversals of the axial dipole polarity, involving a competition with the quadrupolar component.
PACS: 91.25.Cw – Origins and models of the magnetic field; dynamo theories / 47.65.-d – Magnetohydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics
© EPLA, 2009
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