Studies of separation distances in a magnetically driven shock tube with parallel-plate electrodes

The separation distances between the pressure, the luminous, the ionization and the current front in a magnetically driven shock tube were investigated under discharge conditions of constant voltage and variable pressures. In order to achieve a steady-state, one-dimensional flow- parallelplate electrodes and a constant voltage energy source were chosen, onventional magnetic probe and piezo-electric probes were used as diagnostic tools. These were suplemented by Schlieren and holographic interferograms. Experimental results show that the observed lack of separation at low discharge pressures can be attributed to the diffusive nature of the driving current. Due to the presence of anomalous diffusion, its cause cannot be entirely explained by present theories.