Plane wave magnetoacoustic stability of an MHD induction machine

A theoretical investigation of stability with respect to one-dimensional magnetoacoustic waves excited from synchronous flow in a narrow-flow-gap MHD induction machine is presented. The fluid is assumed to be a compressible continuum characterized by a constant, scalar, electrical conductivity. The effects of viscosity and heat conduction are neglected. A mathematically rigorous stability criterion is developed, for large magnetic Reynolds number, in terms of bounds on an infinite determinant. More useful is an approximate parameter space stability plot valid for small Alfven Mach number M (