The annual meeting of the Council of HYDROMAG was held on 28 February 1996 in Jerusalem. The meeting, chaired by HYDROMAG president R. Moreau, was intended to review the process of creation of HYDROMAG and to define the future activities.
HYDROMAG has now a network of Assistant Treasurers, accepting membership applications from all over the world, a World Wide Web page:
http://www.tu-dresden.de/mwism/hydromag/home.html
containing information about our organization, and, last but not least the HYDROMAG-newsletter that you are about to read.
However, much remains to be done, which requires the input of new ideas and the help of everybody interested in hydromagnetics. In particular, the meeting came to the conclusion that in order to transform the image of hydromagnetics into that of a modern, innovative and original discipline of fluid mechanics, and to attract more interest from the industry, we must extend the scope of our publications beyond the purely scientific journals, publishing highlights of our research in popular journals as well as journals of national and international professional societies. Also, we need original ideas for subjects of future workshops, summer schools, colloquia and other meetings to be held under the auspices of HYDROMAG. Most importantly, however, we need new individual and corporate members, because only with a sound financial basis will HYDROMAG be able to support and to promote new ideas and the new image of hydromagnetics.
On March 22, 1996, has been held a meeting devoted on the assessment of knowledges and needs in the field of Dynamo. It has gathered people from Fluid Mechanics as well as from Geophysics. A particular attention has been paid to the possibility to start an experimental dynamo project which should be complementary of those being currently tested in Riga and Karlsruhe. A working group composed of scientists from the CEA (French Atomic Agency) and of the CNRS (Agency for Scientific Research) has been formed with the aim to promote a liquid metal experimental dynamo prototype.
The Seminar was held at the Israeli National Academy of Sciences in Jerusalem between February 25-29, 1996. 139 specialists from 19 countries participated and presented 175 papers. According to notes of Sessions chairmen, the following constituted the highlights of the Seminar. Regarding MHD power generation technology, the paper of Prof. A.Sheindlin (Russia) was singled out. Despite the present stagnation in this area, Prof. Sheindlin anticipates a triumphal comeback of this technology in a not distant future. In the field close to the above, another Russian work caused great interest, namely - the paper by Kagan, Krechetova and Shpilrain of Moscow Institute of High Temperatures. The work deals with thermo-physical properties of liquid-metal working fluids - 2- and 3-component alloys with working temperatures (in the liquid phase) between 200K and 1800K.
In the Flow phenomena group of papers, the work by Moreau (France) on a new model of a liquid metal jet generated by a specially arrenged magnetic field was found very interesting. Among papers on new methods of measurements, the work by Reshotko (USA) on "A new sensor for wall shear stress measurements" was found interesting and useful.
In turbulence research the papers by Wygnansky (Israel) on Boundary layer separation control and by Nosenchuck and Braun on Drag reduction using MHD forces caused much interest. The role of helicity in atmospheric and MHD turbulence was investigated by Moiseev (Rusia) and Branover and Eidelman (Israel); Spiral flux-tubes have been studied by Budger and Moffatt (UK), and Negative viscosity was analyzed by Sukoriansky, Chekhlov and Galperin (Israel).
It was emphasized that much progress was done in sea-water MHD (Meng (USA), Thibault (France)). More specifically, the effect of turbulence and of micro- bubbles in the boundary layer of MHD thrusters was much better understood.
All together, many participants expressed the view that this was the most successful Beer-Sheva Seminar till now and that the deliberations at the Seminar made a very important impact on future MHD research in a variety of areas.
University of Cambridge - Department of Engineering
Applications are invited for two (possibly three) Post-Doctoral positions within Cambridge University Engineering Department. The positions are funded by EPSRC and DRA. One will commence in July of this year and the remainder towards the end of the year. The research projects are concerned with the fluid mechanics and magnetohydrodynamics of liquid metals, and each will last for three years. Both theoretical and experimental work will be involved.
The ideal candidate should have a sound theoretical understanding of fluid mechanics. Applications are welcome from engineers, applied mathematicians and physicists. The salary is age related and in accordance with EPSRC scales.
Written applications, including a full CV and the names and addresses of three referees, should be sent to:
Dr P A Davidson, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ.
Further information may be obtained by calling Dr Peter Davidson on 01223 332706. The closing date for applications is 10th May.
The University follows an equal opportunities policy and aims to achieve the highest quality in teaching and research.
At Lulea University of Technology, division of fluid mechanics, research in MHD with metallurgical applications has been started during the last year. Especially MHD applications to the belt strip casting process are considered. In the belt strip casting process, liquid metal is fed with several possible techniques on to a single horisontal belt that runs between two rollers. The bottom of the belt is cooled by water. Critical factors for the quality of the solidified steel are the flow and solidification conditions of the liquid metal at the feeding point. In the research project we are studying the effects of a transverse DC magnetic field on the fluid flow on the moving belt. Especially braking and stabilizing effects are of interest. We also have plans to study confinement of the liquid metal by electromagnetic forces. Information of MHD research at other universities in Sweden will be reported in forthcoming issues of the HYDROMAG letter.
In the previous Hydromag Letter, it has been announced that the next PAMIR Conference "Transfer Phenomena in Magnetohydrodynamic and Electroconducting Flows" will be held in Aussois, France, from September 22 to 26th. Please note that it will be in September 1997. The Call for papers is being forwarded and a WWW page will be soon available on: http://www.legi.img.fr/legi/pamir.html
The next International Conference on Magnetic Fluids (ICMF8) is to be held in the summer of 1998 at Timisoara, Romania. For further information please contact Dr. L Vekas of the Technical University by FAX (-40-56-190321) or e-mail vekas@mec.utt.ro. At the present time the International Steering Committee of Magnetic Fluids consist of 14 members, representing most, but not all, countries in which research on Magnetic Fluids takes place. If anyone wishes to find out what activities are taking place in a particular country one is advised to contact the appropriate member of the Steering Committee or inspect the proceedings of the previous International Meetings which are published in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. In each of the proceedings an updated bibliography and list of patents is given. The names and addresses of Committee members can be obtained from Dr. L Vekas or Dr S W Charles (FAX: 44 1248 370528 and e-mail k.spencer@bangor.ac.uk ).
Philippe MARTY LEGI/IMG B.P. 53 X - 38041 Grenoble Cedex France Tel. (33) 76 82 50 46 - Fax (33) 76 82 52 71 E-mail: Philippe.Marty@img.fr