🚀 go-pugleaf

>I recall reading somewhere, a few years ago, that magnetohydrodynamic
>electric   power  generators  suffered  from   plasma/contact-surface 
>deterioration...
>However,  isn't  it  possible to conduct electricity  without  direct 
>contact? ...Couldn't the magnetic field of the MHD be RF modulated so
>that the electrical power could be tapped by a capacitive, indirect
>method.   Wouldn't  this solve the erosion problem?  Is anyone  doing 
>this in MHD systems?
>-- 
>- John M. Logajan 

Whatever happened to MHD?  It was the big buzzword in late 1960s, what 
everyone would be driving next year.

Jet engines didn't work until they figured out how to use compressed 
air to keep the flame from touching the walls of the combustion 
chambers.  Maybe MHD needs an analogous process.

Last I read about MHD was an article in Aviation Week or Defense 
Electronics a few years ago.  Air Force was experimenting with 
airborne EMP gun for destroying enemy radios. Explosive cartridge 
propels ionized argon through MHD generator which is the power supply 
for the EMP.  The article didn't say what happens to the plane's 
avionics.  Imagine finding a surplus EMP gun at a hamfest, and firing 
it outside an IRS computing center!   :^)

--

Frank
reid@gold.bacs.indiana.edu
"A megajoule is roughly equivalent to a stick of dynamite."
               -- Tom Clancy, _The Cardinal of the Kremlin_