THE NONLINEAR EVOLUTION OF MAGNETIC INSTABILITIES IN A RAPIDLY ROTATING ANNULUS

A numerical investigation of the stability of an axisymmetric magnetic held is discussed. The magnetic held permeates a finitely conducting fluid contained within a rapidly rotating cylindrical annulus. The flu id is incompressible and viscid. The evolution of a non-axisymmetric p erturbation to the axisymmetric magnetic held is governed by the momen tum and induction equations which are integrated using a spectral time step method. We follow the growth of the perturbation to finite amplit ude and find that the character of the solution is dominated by the mo st unstable axially dependent mode found from the linear theory.