THE EFFECT OF VISCOSITY ON THE PARAMETERS OF A MAGNETOGASDYNAMIC GENERATOR

A new prospect was noted in the development of electrical machine design: the production of electrical energy from thermal energy using a magnetogasdynamic generator (MGD generator). This type power installation cannot be classified among the so-called devices for the direct conversion of thermal energy into electrical. However, the production of electrical energy during the interaction of a magnetic field and a moving stream of conducting gas, making it possible, in principle, to dispense with the mechanical generator, was of interest. This interest in such installation was increased by the possibility of obtaining essentially higher efficiencies, sometimes to 60%, in installation with MGD generators, with simultaneously lower fuel consumption than in the best turbogenerator installations. The basic properties of MGD generators are usually analyzed on the basis of solution of the differential equations which describe the one-dimensional flow of a conducting fluid in a transverse magnetic field. (Author) Trans. of Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Otdeleniya Technicheskikh Nauk, Energetika i Automatika, No. 4, p. 46-54, 1961.