Hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations of wire turbulence

Abstract

We report on simulations of laboratory experiments in which magnetized supersonic flows are driven through a wire mesh. The goal of the study was to investigate the ability of such a configuration to generate supersonic, MHD turbulence. We first report on the morphological structures that develop in both magnetized and non-magnetized cases. We then analyze the flow using a variety of statistical measures, including power spectra and probability distribution functions of the density. Using these results we estimate the sonic mach number in the flows downstream of the wire mesh. We find the initially hypersonic (Ms = 20) planar shock through the wire mesh does lead to downstream turbulent conditions. However, in both magnetized and non-magnetized cases, the resultant turbulence was marginally supersonic to transonic (Ms ∼ 1), and highly anisotropic in structure.