MHD flows

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is the single fluid macroscopic description of a plasma, as a conducting flow. In its incompressible and resistive verstion it is based on the equations of electrodynamics (Maxwell equations), the equations of fluids (Navier-Stokes equations) and a constitutive relation for the current density and electric field (Ohm's law). Compressibility can be taken into account by considering the continuity law (mass conservation), a constitutive relation (equation of state) and an energy balance equation.

Many space physics sytems, in geophysics and astrophysics, can be described by the MHD approximation. And due to the very broad range of length and time scales involved, those systems are often (almost unavoidably) in a regime of turbulence, with strong non-linear couplings among scales. The following is a list of research topics, and corresponding projects of this group, in this area: