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MHD Electrical Power Generation in a T-Layer Plasma Flow

Valentin A. Bityurin, Carlo A. Borghi, Member, IEEE, and Abraham Veefkind
AbstractIn the present work, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) power generation based on the T-layer regime has been investigated both experimentally and numerically. The experimental investigation has been carried out in a shock tunnel MHD facility. There, the plasma layer characteristics have been studied. The layers have been produced by means of electrical discharges at the entrance of a segmented Faraday MHD channel. Streak photography pictures and charge coupled device (CCD) camera snap shots are used to observe the layers. The effect of the layers on the local electrical power production is studied through the response of the currents of individual electrode pairs. The performance characteristic of the T-layer MHD generation has been investigated in a channel of commercial size (active length of 14 m) by means of numerical simulations performed by means of a two-dimensional time dependent (2-Dt) model. In the commercial size channel, when using ideal gas and neglecting loss mechanisms, an enthalpy extraction larger than 30% has been obtained. The effects of a real gas and of loss mechanisms on the T-layer MHD conversion have been studied by means of the 2-Dt numerical analysis in a 4-m channel. In this channel, when an ideal gas is used, a reduction of about 20% of the electrical power output is caused by the loss mechanisms. When loss mechanisms and combustion gas in the 4-m channel are considered, an increase of the power stored in the plasma T-layer is observed. This power is of the order of the electrical power extracted from the MHD channel. Index TermsMHD plasmas, MHD power generation, numerical simulation of MHD flows, plasma-flow interaction.

I. INTRODUCTION OST of the technology of plasma MHD power generation is based on a uniform plasma regime. This demands temperatures to be above the conductivity limit and consequently reduces the obtainable enthalpy extraction. A trilateral joint research project has been set up to study MHD conversion in highly nonuniform flows. The contributing institutes are the Institute of High Temperatures, Moscow (with the task to coordinate the project and to perform the physical modeling), Russia; the Eindhoven University of Technology (with the task to perform the experiments), Eindhoven, The Netherlands; and the University of Bologna (with the task to perform studies of
Manuscript received July 20, 1999; revised April 12, 2000. This work was supported by the Trilateral Cooperation Research Project IVTANEUTUB on MHD Power Generation with Plasma NonuniformitiesGas Interacting Flows. V. A. Bityurin is with the Institute for High Temperatures, Academy of Sciences of Russia, Moscow, Russia. C. A. Borghi is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. A. Veefkind is with the Department of Technical Physics, Laboratory for Fluid Dynamics, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands (e-mail: a.veefkind@phys.tue.nl). Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-3813(00)07467-1.

commercial-scale energy conversion), Bologna, Italy. The main goal of the project is to demonstrate the physical feasibility of MHD energy conversion in alternating gas/plasma flows and to analyze the effect on commercial scale installations [1]. In order to refer to the nonuniform regime of the plasma flow considered here, several denominations have been adopted in the literature. The T-layer regime and the regime space and time current carrying nonuniformities (STCC) are the synonyms mostly used. T-layers, plasma vanes, or plasma clots refer to the high-temperature plasma structures. Here, they will be named T-layers. The MHD interaction realized in a T-layer regime plasma flow has been investigated for the electrical power MHD generation [2][4], and for the control of hypersonic aircraft and the generation of highly energetic electrical pulses during the reentry at high altitudes [5], [6]. The performance of the T-layer MHD generators of commercial size has been studied through numerical simulations based on time-dependent one- and two-dimensional (1-Dt and 2-Dt) models. By means of 1-D calculations, enthalpy extractions of 40% have been obtained [7]. By means of 2-D simulations based on a model that considers ideal gas thermodynamics and neglects the loss mechanisms caused by friction, heat transport, and turbulence, an MHD generator of an active length of 14 m has been studied [3]. At optimal conditions, an enthalpy extraction larger than 30% has been obtained. These results were achieved after a large optimization work was realized through a parametric study. The optimal operating conditions appear to be reached in narrow ranges of parameters, such as the gas conditions at the channel inlet, the formation conditions of the plasma layers, and the electrical boundary conditions. Calculations that take real gas thermodynamics, heat losses, and turbulence into account show a reduction of the generator performance when comparing the same operating conditions [8]. However, optimization of the operating conditions has not been done. The T-layer regime has been studied experimentally in a shock tunnel MHD facility [2], [10][14]. It has been demonstrated experimentally that the MHD generation in a nonuniform T-layer flow can be realized. The plasma layer, created at the channel inlet by an electrical discharge of short duration, has been observed to flow through the channel withi the gas velocity and to live up to the channel exit. However, in the small-scale shock tube channel, the cold boundary layer voltage drops are excessive and cause severe limitations of the energy conversion efficiency. The main aims of the present investigation are to study the interaction between the cold gas and the plasma T-layer, the conditions and the lifetime of the T-layer inside the gas flow and the main characteristics of the energy conversion based on the

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of the plasma flow in the -plane is considered. The distributions in the -direction of the quantities describing the flow are assumed to be constant. The plasma flow in the channel is described by the conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy, which assume the following form: (1) where is the unknown vector containing the components of the velocity, the pressure and the temperature. is the source vector, which takes Joule heating, Lorentz force, and heat and and are matrix coeffimomentum transfer into account. and are strongly linked to the thermodynamic cients. and the electrodynamics of the process. Expressions of , and can be found in [8]. The physical model describing the thermodynamics considers both ideal and real gases. For a real gas, all state variables of the plasma are given as functions of pressure and temperature. Their expressions are calculated assuming electrochemical equilibrium [15]. In order to calculate the heat flux density and the momentum flux density, when loss mechanisms are considered, the terms caused by turbulence are taken into account. The BaldwinLomax turbulence model is used [16]. Both in the experimental channel and in the channels considered for the theoretical simulations, a segmented Faraday electrical loading scheme, as shown in Fig. 1, is adopted. To describe the electrodynamics of the flow, a linear approximation of the Ohms law equation for a segmented Faraday channel is used. In the theoretical models, always local thermal equilibrium (LTE) is assumed. Therefore, the electrical conductivity is calculated from the gas temperature. A nonequilibrium electron temperature is not considered. For the simulation of the flow in the shock tunnel MHD, a numerical model describing the whole experiment has been set up. The model consists of two parts. The first one describes gas-dynamics in the shock tube, including the nonstationary flow of a mixture of ideal molecular gases and the ignition and detonation combustion of carbon monoxide. The model of the shock tunnel section is 1-Dt. A high-order Godunov numerical scheme has been used for the integration [17]. Validation of the code has been performed by comparing measured shock tube characteristics with the computational results. Details of the modeling can be found in [2]. To simulate the nonuniform MHD-interacting flow in the MHD channel section, a 2-Dt gas-dynamic model has been considered. As a numerical algorithm, the GodunovKolgan scheme [18] has been adopted. In this case, ideal gas thermodynamics has been assumed; moreover, loss phenomena and viscosity effects have been neglected. The numerical code obtained has been used for analysis of the shock tunnel MHD experimental results described in Section IV. The code used for the simulation and for the analysis of the generator performance in commercial-size generators is based on 2-Dt approximation. It can consider ideal as well as real gas thermodynamics, loss phenomena, and viscosity effects. For the integration of the physical model, a semi-implicit finite-difference pressure algorithm has been developed [19][25]. For the discrete description of the channel, a quadrangular mesh is used.

Fig. 1.

T-layer MHD flow.

T-layer MHD regime. The study is carried out both by means of an experimental investigation and numerical simulations. In Section II, the principle of the MHD generation in a T-layer plasma flow is described. Section III is devoted to the numerical investigation. The models used are described in Section III-A. The main results of the simulations of commercial-size generators are reported in Section III-B. In Section III-C, the effects caused by a coal combustion gas and the transport phenomena are considered. The experimental investigation is reported in Section IV. In Section IV-A, the experimental arrangement is described. The main experimental results and the comparison with computational results are considered in Section IV-B. II. THE T-LAYER CONCEPT Energy conversion in MHD channels at an average temperature lower than the conductivity limit can be obtained by means of alternating flows realized by a sequence of T-layers and colder gas regions. The T-layers are relatively small portions of high temperatures (and, consequently, with sufficiently high electrical conductivities), produced periodically at the channel entrance. The principle of a T-Layer MHD flow is sketched in Fig. 1. The important physical feature is that the colder gas, which is unable to conduct the current, still does the necessary work, in this case, to push the T-Layers against the Lorentz force so that the internal energy of the colder gas is converted. During the conversion, the temperature of the T-Layer needs to be maintained by Joule heating. III. NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION A. Numerical Model For the simulation of a commercial-size generator, the modeling covers the simulation of the flow train, which is composed of the channel nozzle, the active portion of the MHD channel, and the divergent section. When analyzing experimental data from the shock tube, the entire installation is simulated: the driver section and the test section of the shock tube, the MHD channel, and the expansion tank. The numerical model combines a gasdynamic model (solution of the conservation equations), a thermodynamic model (to describe the combustion in the test section of the shock tube), and an electrodynamics model (to be used in the MHD channel). A coordinate system with the -axis in the flow direction, the -axis in the direction of the externally applied magnetic field, and the -axis in the anodecathode direction has been taken. The channel insulating walls (normal to the -axis) are parallel. The electrode walls are divergent. A 2-Dt description

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Fig. 2. Two-dimensional plots of the median channel cross section for the simulation of the T-layer MHD conversion in a commercial-size generator. The plots refer to the temperature, the static pressure, and the x- and z -components of the velocity at a time t = 0:1073 s from the initiation of the MHD interaction, in the plane containing the channel axis (horizontal) and the magnetic field direction (vertical).

The mesh side in the -direction is m. In the -direction, for the simulations that neglect friction, heat transport is taken constant and equal to 0.01 m. For and turbulence, is the simulations that take these mechanisms into account, m at the wall and is linearly increasing equal to is used. toward the channel axis. A ratio The time step is determined to verify the criterion of the stability of the numerical model [8]. The results of the simulations of a commercial-size generator and of the influence of loss mechanisms on the generator performance are discussed in Section III-B. B. Simulation Analysis of a Commercial-Size Generator The channel used for the commercial-size generator simulations consists of four sections: the nozzle; the formation region, where the plasma T-layers are generated; the active region, where the magnetic field is applied; and the diffuser. The formation region is 1.5 m long and has a constant cross section m . The channel active region has a length of 14 of m. Its cross section is constant in the -direction and diverges

from 0.2 m to 2.7 m in the -direction. In the formation region, a plasma layer is created every 2.03.5 ms (T-layer formation period). For the present investigation, the process of formation is simulated by means of a step function to describe the gas temof the step perature in the formation region. The high-value function temperature, at the formation of the plasma layer, is m in the -direction 3300 K and covers a region of m, depending on the gas velocity , and of in the -direction. Its length in the -direction is smaller than the distance between the insulating walls. Therefore, a gap between the plasma layer and the insulating wall is present. After its formation, the layer flows through the channel with a velocity near to the gas velocity. In the formation region, a gas temperature outside the T-layer, of 2100 K and a static pressure of 5.58.5 bar, are taken. Here, gas velocities between 1000 and 1400 m/s are considered. The magnetic flux density is chosen to be 4 T. The electrical conductivity is taken as a function of pressure and temperature fitting data obtained in a plasma of natural gas combustion products seeded by means of 1% wt of potassium carbonate. Ideal gas thermodynamics with a gas constant

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Fig. 4. Channel shape in z -direction.

Fig. 3. Enthalpy extraction (A) and isentropic efficiency (B) versus the T-layer formation period.

of 300 J kg K and a specific heat ratio of 1.25, is assumed. The model for the commercial-size generator analysis neglects friction, heat transport, and turbulence. The MHD interaction simulation is initiated in an expanding gas characterized by a constant inlet temperature equal to the , the interaction start up is cold gas inlet temperature. For obtained by the formation of the first T-layer that follows from the initiation of the temperature step function, as mentioned above. A transient of 2060 ms characterizes this starting procedure before the regime operation. The regime is characterized by a nearly periodic operation. The results of the simulations reported in the following refer to the regime operation. The performance of the generator strongly depends on the behavior of the plasma structure. In order to ensure a suitable MHD conversion, the plasma flow has to retain its T-layer structure. When, during its flow through the channel, the plasma structure disappears, the MHD interaction vanishes and the energy conversion cannot be realized. In Fig. 2, typical results of the 2-D calculations are shown. The plots of the figure refer to the temperature, the gas pressure, and the gas velocity in - and -directions in the -plane [i.e., the plane containing the channel axis and the magnetic induction vector ] at a time s from the MHD interaction initiation. As shown by the temperature plot, in this case, T-layers are living until the end of the active length and high MHD interaction is obtained. In other runs, starting from different conditions, the layers are not reaching the end of the channel. In these cases, the power output is much lower. In order to obtain the optimal operation of the generator, a parametric study has been performed. The gas velocity at the inlet, the T-layer period of formation, and the inlet pressure have

been varied and the relative effects on the performance of the generator has been compared. The enthalpy extraction and the isentropic efficiency as functions of the period of formation of the T-layer are shown in Fig. 3(A) and (B), respectively. The runs correspond to the best values of the inlet gas velocity and static pressure, which are 1400 m/s and 6.7 bar, respectively. As shown in the figures, the enthalpy extraction and the isentropic efficiency appear to be sensible to variations of the plasma layer formation period. The period of formation of a T-layer in the formation region is proportional to the distance between two adjacent plasma layers in the channel (the mean gas velocity is the coefficient of proportionality). The T-layer thickness is taken one-tenth of this distance. For increasing values of it, the number of the layers present in the channel decreases. Above the maximum of the enthalpy extraction, the plasma structures are too few for a good operation. When the formation period is small, the number of layers is high, but each of them has a too small thickness and is not able to operate correctly. The maximal values of the enthalpy extraction and of the isentropic efficiency are above 30% and 72%, respectively. These demonstrate that very reasonable values for application can be obtained. C. Real Gas Effects In order to reduce the computation time, for this investigation, a short channel has been considered. The channel has a total length of 6.5 m and is 0.8 m wide in -direction. The active length is 4 m. Its shape in -direction is shown in Fig. 4. In the active region, the magnetic flux density is 4.5 T. The plasma is obtained from the combustion of methane with 20% oxygen enriched air, 10% in excess with respect to the stoichiometric ratio. 1% wt of potassium carbonate is added. Two thermodynamic approximations are considered: the ideal gas approximation and the real gas approximation. In the first case, a gas constant equal to 300 J kg K and a specific heat ratio of 1.4 are taken. In the real gas approximation, bicubic splines interpolating expressions for the mass density and the specific energy are derived assuming thermodynamic equilibrium by means of the SP-273 code [13]. The electrical conductivity is calculated as mentioned in Section III-B. The gas viscosity and the thermal conductivity are assumed to be independent from pressure and temperature, and to be equal to N s m and to 0.55 W m K , respectively. For the gas conditions of the simulations considered, the eddy viscosity and the eddy thermal conductivity, calculated by means of the BaldwinLomax model, appeared to be always much greater than their laminar values. The eddy viscosity is more than times larger than its laminar value. The eddy thermal conductimes larger than its laminar value. tivity is about

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Fig. 5. Electrical power output from the active region of the MHD channel as a function of time.

The initial conditions are characterized by a pressure, a temperature, and a gas velocity constant in the whole channel and , the equal to 1 bar, 1000 K, and zero, respectively. Then, at flow is originated by a sudden increase of the stagnation pressure and the stagnation temperature at the inlet of the channel in front of the nozzle, assuming the values of 5 bar and 2400 K, respectively. The entrance stagnation parameters are kept constant during the whole simulation. In this study, the plasma layers are formed by applying a uniform electrical power density pulse every seconds in the same region of cross section , as mentioned above. The results of three simulations are reported. The first case considers ideal gas approximation and neglects losses caused by friction, heat transport, and turbulence. The other two cases take friction, heat transport, and turbulence into account. The second case regards ideal gas approximation, and the third case refers to real gas thermodynamics. In order to have in the real gas case approximately the same plasma layer temperature as in the ideal cases, a larger amount of the electrical power, to create the plasma layer in the formation region, is necessary. This is because of the specific heat at constant pressure that, for the combustion gas considered here, increases approximately from to J kg K when the temperature passes from 2000 to 3500 K. In the formation region, the plasma layer m and m. The plasma layer is 3500 K, formation period is 2.5 ms. A transient of about 50 ms follows the initiation process at . After the transient, the regime is characterized by a typical periodic behavior. In Fig. 5, the time behavior of the electrical power output of the three cases is shown. Table I reports the main average characteristics of the regime operation of the three cases considered. As shown in the table, the electrical power spent for the plasma layer formation in the real gas cases is larger than the one of the ideal gas cases. This is because of the specific heat of the combustion gas, which increases with the temperature. The power lost through the wall is about 10% of the electrical power output with a small difference between ideal and real gas. The effect of friction heat transport and turbulence causes a reduction of power output of about 20%. In the table, the average values of the gas stagnation temperatures

TABLE I MAIN PARAMETERS

OF THE REGIME OPERATION FOR THE GAS EFFECT ANALYSIS

REAL

and pressures at the inlet and at the outlet of the channel active region are also reported. IV. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION A. Experimental Arrangement The experiments have been carried out in the Eindhoven shock tunnel facility. The facility has been described in detail in earlier publications, e.g., [26]. A sketch is given in Fig. 6. Plasmas of combustion gases as well as inert gases are produced in the shock tube. The gas expands through a supersonic nozzle into the MHD duct. The entrance Mach number is about 1.5. The channel is of the segmented Faraday type. It is 80 cm mm . The long and has an average cross section of maximum magnetic field was 2.5 T. Typical stagnation conditions are 9 bar stagnation pressure and 20003000 K stagnation

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Fig. 6. MHD shock tunnel facility. Combustion gases are produced by shock compressing to reach the ignition temperature. Inert gases are heated by compression only. Cesium is used as seeding material.

Fig. 7. CCD picture of a T-layer in the plane normal to the magnetic field and containing the channel axis (horizontal) and the cathode-anode direction (vertical). The locations of several anodes (a) and cathodes (k ) are indicated. Their numbers correspond to their location in the channel (#1 at the entrance and #80 at the exit with a mutual distance of 1 cm). The false colors represent light intensity in arbitrary units.

temperature. T-layers were produced by discharging capacitors of 1 F at a voltage between 5 and 10 kV over a few (mostly 5) electrode pairs at the channel entrance. Experimental results are derived from individual electrode currents, voltage probes, photodiodes, piezo-electric and piezo-resistive transducers, and a charge coupled device (CCD) camera. B. Discussion of the Experimental Results A picture of a T-layer obtained in the shock tube, taken by means of the CCD camera, is shown in Fig. 7. The optical axis is along the -direction. Therefore, the figure shows the layer in the plane normal to the magnetic field and containing the channel axis and the anodecathode direction. The layer was observed through a large window in the middle of the channel. The false colors indicate light intensities in arbitrary units. The figure demonstrates that the layer, which was produced at the entrance of the channel, passes as a still bright object at the

location of observation. The exposure time was 1 s, so that the space resolution is approximately 1 mm. As an exception, the experiment was carried out with cathodes and anodes mutually short-circuited to form virtually a single anode and a single cathode. Because in this case the electric field is perpendicular to the channel axis, the Hall effect causes an inclination of the layer in the direction of the current. Fig. 8 shows an image converter camera picture of a T-layer in a combustion product experiment (top) and its computer simulation (bottom). A streak mode technique is used. The MHD flow is observed through a slit perpendicular to the flow and along the anodecathode direction. An image of the slit is moved perpendicular to its orientation over the photographic material during 700 s. In this way, objects passing the slit during the exposure time are visualized. With a gas velocity of 1200 m/s, a total length of the flow of 0.84 m is observed. The picture is compared with results of 2-Dt calculations. It can be seen in the photograph that

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Fig. 8. Top: Streak camera picture of a shock tube experiment. The slit is oriented normal to the channel axis and along the cathodeanode direction. During the exposure time of 700 s, typically, 80 cm of the flow can be observed while passing the slit. With the time as indicated, the downstream direction is to the right. Bottom: 2-Dt computation displaying isotherms in an xy -plane, with x as (horizontal) the direction of the channel axis and y as (vertical) the cathodeanode direction. The computation is an approximate simulation of the shock tube experiment of the upper picture. The units are arbitrary. The represented distance in the horizontal direction is approximately 70 cm and in the vertical direction 3.5 cm (half the channel width). Note that the strong gradients correspond to the downstream and upstream edge of the T-layer.

Fig. 9. Currents through individual electrode circuits during the passage of a T-layer. Solid lines: experiment. Dashed lines: computation.

the T-layer is preceded by a precursor wave and that tails are formed near the wall. Both phenomena are identified by the computation. The precursor is the downstream pressure wave launched by the discharge, which initially produced the T-layer. The tails are explained to follow from retardation in the boundary layer. The energy conversion appears from the current response in the load circuits of individual electrode pairs to the passage of a T-layer. An example is presented in Fig. 9, again for a combustion product experiment. Also in this figure, the experimental results are compared with the computations. A reasonable agreement has been found for a large part of the channel. Near the channel, exit computation and experiment begin to diverge, showing that the model not exactly describes the advanced evolution of the T-layer. It is, however, important that the conductivity of the T-layer remains high until the end of the channel in experiment as well as in computation. In order to evaluate the energy conversion characteristics, a series of runs has been carried out with different loads. In Fig. 10, the energy transferred to the external circuits during T-layer passage was plotted against the load resistance. The corresponding electrical power is still low. When, for instance,

Fig. 10.

Energy conversion of a T-layer.

in the given experimental situation T-layers could be produced every 0.25 ms (allowing two T-layers in the channel at the same time), the electrical power would be 28 kW. This has to be compared with a thermal input of about 3 MW. The low electrical power is partially caused by the fact that the experimental channel is too short, but also by too large voltage drops in the cold boundary layers. These large voltage drops not only result in a low-energy production, but also in a low magnetic interaction. For this reason, the response of the pressure to the passage of a T-layer was small (of order 0.01 bar) and could often not be distinguished from the fluctuations on the signal. Because the maintaining of the T-layer is based on its Joule heating, this characteristic also suffers from the large boundary layer resistance. Consequently, all experiments with combustion gases

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Fig. 11. Current responses of individual external circuits to T-layer passage in argon.

needed to be carried out in a regime where outside the T-layers the electrical conductivity is so large that the current density is still significant. Besides with combustion gases, experiments have been carried out with nitrogen, air, and argon, both seeded and not seeded. Only in seeded argon could T-layers be maintained. In all other cases, the cold boundary layers prevent a sufficient heating. The responses of the electrode currents to T-layer passage for cesium-seeded argon are presented in Fig. 11. Because we deal with nonequilibrium electrical conductivity, so that only the electron gas needs to be heated, the effect of T-layer passage is strong. In this case, the electrical conductivity outside the layers is negligible. V. CONCLUSION The energy conversion process based on the T-layer regime has been investigated experimentally and by means of numerical simulations. The plasma T-layer has been studied in an MHD channel fed from the relaxation region of a shock tunnel. The conversion performance has been investigated through a 2-Dt numerical model describing a commercial-size MHD channel of an active length of 14 m. Real gas effects and loss mechanism effects on the T-layer MHD operation have also been numerically analyzed. In this case, a channel of an active length of 4 m has been used. From the numerical analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn:

The T-layer, formed at the channel entrance, appears to retain its structure until the outlet of the channel. The lifetime of the plasma layer is essential for the energy conversion. No electrical power can be extracted from the section of the channel downstream the location of disappearance of T-layers. When ideal gas is used and loss mechanisms are neglected, with a thickness of the plasma layer of about 50 cm, a width of 0.6 m, and T-layer production frequency of 330 Hz, an enthalpy extraction larger than 30% has been observed. For the ideal gas case, when passing from the model that neglects the loss mechanisms to the model that takes them into account, a reduction of the electrical power output of about 20% has been calculated. The power outputs of ideal and real gas, when using the same plasma layer formation temperature, are near. Therefore, in this case, when a full-length commercial-size generator is used, an enthalpy extraction larger than 24% can be expected. In the ideal gas case, the power used to create the layer is between 20% and 30% of the electrical power output. For the combustion gas, the electrical power used for the formation of the plasma layer, at the same formation temperature of the ideal cases, is slightly larger than the electrical power output. This is mainly because of the specific heat, which increases with the temperature. Furthermore, this indicates that a large amount of power is stored inside the plasma layer at the outlet of the channel and has not been properly used for the MHD conversion. As these results have been obtained in a small-scale channel, in order to have better information on the dimension of the mentioned phenomenon, numerical analysis and optimizations of the operating conditions in a commercial-scale channel have to be done. From the shock tube experiments with combustion gases, the following can be concluded: The feasibility of the concept has been demonstrated qualitatively. The conductivity of the layers remains high until the end of the channel. The experimentally observed precursor has been identified by the computation as the downstream pressure wave launched by the electrical discharge that produced the layer. The observed current responses are in reasonable agreement with the model calculation. Substantial electrical power levels could not be obtained because of the cold boundary layers. The latter was confirmed with a few experiments in argon, in which high current responses could be obtained because there only the electron gas in the boundary layer needs to be heated. After the completion of the trilateral project, it has been concluded that the results briefly mentioned in this paper justify a second-stage project. The new project foresees a full scientific description as much as possible quantitatively consistent with all collected data. Along with this effort, a technical concept will be formulated to identify all technical consequences of the completed work. Furthermore, other fields

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of application will be explored, e.g., future space and aircraft technology. REFERENCES
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Valentin A. Bityurin graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia, in 1964. He received the doctoral degree in physics and mathematics in 1971 and the second doctoral degree in electrophysics and mechanics of plasmas, gases, and fluids in 1994. He is the Head of the MHD Research Center of the Institute of High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. He is a specialist in magnetogasdynamics, gasdynamics, gas discharges, heat and mass transfer in high-speed channel flows, numerical simulations, and MHD energy conversion.

Carlo A. Borghi (M92) was born in Massa Lombarda, Italy, in 1951. He received the M.S. degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, in 1976 and the Ph.D. degree in the technical sciences from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1982. At Eindhoven University of Technology, he was involved in a program concerning magnetohydrodynamic energy conversion in noble gas plasmas. In 1983, he joined the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna, continuing the research on applied magnetohydrodynamics. Since 1987, he has been an Aassociate Professor at the University of Bologna in the field of electrical engineering. His main research interests include several aspects of MHD electrical power generation, energy systems studies and magnetic systems studies. Dr. Borghi is a member of the American Physical Society, and AEI (Italian Society for Electrical Engineering). Since June 1993, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the International Liaison Group of Electrical Power Generation.

Abraham Veefkind was born in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, on March 28, 1939. He received the M.S. degree from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 1965, with a specialization in nuclear spectroscopy and the Ph.D. degree from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1970 on a subject concerning plasma nonequilibrium in inert gas MHD generators. In 1965, he joined the Faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where his research on magnetohydrodynamics was started. From 1971 to 1972, he was at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, involved in research on combustion gas MHD generators carried out at the Thermal Sciences Division of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. After that time, he continued the research on MHD plasmas mainly by employing shock tube experiments and with a strong interest in plasma nonuniformities. Since 1990, he has investigated combustion and gasification of small particles and droplets of organic fuels.