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Observation of temperature peaks due to strong viscous heating in a dusty plasma flow
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Observation of temperature peaks due to strong viscous heating in a dusty plasma flow

Yan Feng, J Goree and Bin Liu
Physical review letters, Vol.109(18), pp.185002-185002
09/26/2012
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.185002
PMID: 23215286

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Abstract

Profound temperature peaks are observed in regions of high velocity shear in a 2D dusty plasma experiment with laser-driven flow. These are attributed to viscous heating, which occurs due to collisional scattering in a shear flow. Using measurements of viscosity, thermal conductivity, and spatial profiles of flow velocity and temperature, we determine three dimensionless numbers: Brinkman Br = 0.5, Prandtl Pr = 0.09, and Eckert Ec = 5.7. The large value of Br indicates significant viscous heating that is consistent with the observed temperature peaks.

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